Northern Crimes
by TheClockworkStarling
Summary: The notorious criminals, only known as "The North" have never been close to being caught. Arthur Kirkland and his team of misfit detectives are in charge of cracking this case and they are up against the most unlikely and cleverest group of criminals anyone has ever seen. Human/AU Rated T for future violence and possible language I DO NOT OWN HETALIA!
1. Chapter 1

Arthur looked at the vault with disgust. It was perfectly clean, no dirt, no dust, no money, no jewels, no documents, and no fingerprints. The only thing in the vault was a small white business card with two words printed on it. _The North_. Arthur glared at the card and shoved it into the little plastic bag with the other seven, identical cards. This card had been found in the center of the floor of the perfectly clean, locked bank vault. Empty, locked, bank vault. The bank wasn't even sure how long the vault had been empty. This was infuriating.

"Mr. Kiku?" Arthur said, careful to keep his voice level, "When was the last time we got a case were the culprit was so nice as to leave their signature?"

"Quite a while, sir." Kiku said politely, though he clearly could hear the frustration in Arthur's tone, "The North have been rather active lately."

"We wouldn't know, though would we?" Arthur said, venom dripping from his word, "Maybe this vault was empty for a month! Maybe last week's million dollar vacation home was looted last winter! Maybe that art museum was the only job the lovely North have done in weeks!"

"Maybe." Kiku agreed and offered Arthur a folder, he seemed unfazed by his superior's temper, "Alfred just got the police report, this case has been added to all of the other North crimes. So, it's ours now."

Arthur took the folder and flipped it open. He scanned through it, though he already knew what it said. It was all the same. Every single case of these North guys was the same. Everything whipped clean, everything left immaculate, a single white card with their name on it, and never a clue as to when the actuate break in occurred. The North were never caught on camera, never seen, and with no pattern to their targets. They were amazing. Arthur had to give them that, they were truly amazing. Arthur might even admire a criminal group that could be so efficient, if they weren't making a laughing stock of him and his team.

Arthur had wanted this case group ever since the second card was found. It was too perfect of a set up, too beautiful an execution, too much of a mystery for Arthur to pass by, but now he was wishing he had let Francis or Ivan's team take the case. This case was the main cause of a lot of sleep loss and a lot of stress that Arthur didn't think he deserved. His team was doing everything they could think of, and they had come up with nothing. The North continued to steal and Arthur was taking the heat for it. He was sure that the ringleader of The North was watching the news right now, chuckling quietly to himself and sipping some expensive champagne in a darkly lit room that smelled like cigars. Arthur hated the guy. Arthur was sure that The North enjoyed making him and his team fail.

"Arthur?"

Arthur couldn't help but wince as a new, chipper voice came from behind him. "Yes, Francis?" Arthur and Kiku turned to look at the man leaning on the door frame of the vault. "Can I help you?"

"I was wondering it I could help you," Francis's silky voice matched his ridiculous, long, silky hair and seemed to screech crossed Arthur's nerves, "You know my team is more experienced with actual detective work, maybe we could help you out?"

Arthur winced at the implication his team didn't do detective work. They were a detective agency, what did Francis think his team did? Kiku remained quiet and simply watched the two unit leaders. Arthur had to keep himself from grinding his teeth and forced his tone to be polite, "Oh no thank you, I think that my team will do fine with this one."

"You sure? I could lend you a hand you know." Francis said with an airy smile, "You know little drug busts are not bank robberies just like domestic violence is not a murder case. Plus, your team is always fighting. We are much better equipped for this sort of-"

"NO THANK YOU!" Arthur checked himself and took a deep breath before looking back at Francis who was still smiling evilly in the doorway, "We've got this."

"You haven't turned anything up for the last few months. Tell you what, I could just-"

"No."

"One of my team is all restless right now, he could hang out with you guys and help ou-"

"No."

"He'll be a great help, besides he's bored with-"

"No."

"Awe, com-on!" Francis whined, entering the vault for the first time, "I want to help! Let me put one of my guys with you, just for this case!"

"Will you stop bothering me and go do your job is I say yes?" Arthur snapped, turning back to look at the perfectly empty vault. Why was Francis even here?

"Well, I'd still have to check up on him and make sure he is working with your team, but I can promise to stop bothering you about taking this case." Francis spoke slowly, as is thinking this over. He didn't seem to be as thrilled with this now that he had said it out loud, as if this created a delima for him.

"Really?" Arthur asked doubtfully, looking back at Francis. Kiku raised an eyebrow and the two exchanged a look, Francis seemed to have made it a hobby of bothering Arthur and the other people on his team.

"Really. I promise I will stop trying to take this case if you let one of my team in with yours for a while." Francis said with an apparent resolution to his own personal delima.

"Are you just trying to spy on my team?"

"At least I'm doing it professionally."

Arthur thought about this. Francis bothering his would be a plus. Getting one of Francis's team really might be helpful, but then again all of the team that he had met were pricks. Still, his team was so new that even a simple assignment would have been hard without getting this sort of chain crimes work. Maybe this would be good, even if the team member would just be there to spy for Francis. It would be better than Francis himself hanging around all the time.

"Fine," Arthur said offhandedly as he could, "Who are you going to-"

"I don't know yet," Francis said with a grin, "I'll send them over this afternoon, I've got to talk to them and see who wants the job. My team is a team after all."

"Okay," Arthur winced again, Francis didn't think his team was a team? Sure there were some personality differences, but they worked it out usually. Francis suddenly turned on heel and left.

"See you!" He said over his shoulder and was gone.

"Bloody wanker." Arthur muttered under his breath and looked at Kiku with a sigh. "Do you think that was a mistake?"

"I don't know, but will let you know when we see who he sends over." Kiku said levelly, his face never breaking or showing any emotion.

"Right, fine." Arthur took a deep breath and forced the frustration of the day down, "It's fine, Francis does have a good team."

Kiku just nodded, "I'll head back and enter this new data."

Arthur couldn't help but chuckle darkly, "What new data? It's all the same stuff, just a different location."

Kiku nodded again, "I noticed."

"Arthur?" Alfred said from behind them, "Check this out."

Arthur and Kiku turned and Arther took the paper Alfred offered to him. He looked at it and smiled. A small glimmer of hope filled him, that cigar smoking, champagne drinking prick of The North was going down, "Where did you get this?"

"There was a camera on the inside of the shop crossed the street that looks out of their front window." Alfred said, "That is a picture from that camera three weeks ago. It's pretty blurry, since the focus is the area in front of the shop, but I'm pretty sure that those are our guys."

Arthur grinned at the photo, it was dark and blurry and showed one black van parked in front of the bank and a hooded figure being let into the bank by another person. They were both wearing all black and their faces were covered by black ski masks. This was perfect. This was too perfect. "Can you get me the rest of this night's footage?"

"Yep."

"Good, get it as soon as you can." Arthur said and turned to Kiku, handing him the photo, "Find all the information for what was happening around town on this night and get some information on that van."

They both nodded and started off. Arthur looked at the business card again and then glanced at the vault. This picture was the first step forward, the first progress, since he had gotten this case. Was it an accident? Did The North leave that camera untouched for a reason? The mental image of The North's ringleader came to him, the cigar scent and the champagne, and Arthur smiled. He was going to find The North, and he was going to stop them. He was going to weave a web and devise a plan even better than that imaged criminal in the dark room, Arthur Kirkland was going to win this.

* * *

Emil walked off of the school grounds as quickly as he could without drawing attention, but it was too late. He had been spotted.

"Hey! Wait up!" The voice came from behind Emil, but he didn't slow down or show that he had heard, "Emil! Wait!"

Emil turned the corner and walked up to his brother's car, only now did he turn around and look at the blonde boy running after him. Emil tried to open the car door. It was locked. Emeil looked through the window at Lukas and pointed urgently at the handle. Lukas pointed at the boy who was now a few steps away. Emil sighed inwardly and turned to face his classmate.

"Emil! I had to run all this way!" the boy complained panting, "You sure do walk fast!"

"What do you want Peter?" Emil asked, his tone wasn't rude, but nor was it polite. He was careful to talk with a bored tone and fixed his classmate with an equally bored expression. He had been expecting this conversation and hadn't been looking forward to it.

"Hey, do you want to come over to my house this weekend? We could finish that science project ahead of time!" Peter said in his usual chipper, hopefully naive tone.

"I'm kind of busy this weekend, sorry." Emil said and glanced back into the car were Lukas was watching, "Maybe we can finish it after school tomorrow?"

"Yeah, okay! I will bring all the supplies! Meet me in the library, okay?" Peter said, if he was disappointed, he didn't show it. He smiled as if everything was going his way. He reminded Emil vaguely of a puppy and vaguely of one of those stupid cartoon characters that were always dropping pianos on each other.

"Thats' fine, I will be there. Can you text Lili and tell her?"

"Sure!" Peter suddenly laughed, "Hey! We are sure to get an A since you are on our team! You are at the top of the class, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I guess." Emil looked back at Lukas again, "Listen, I've got to go, I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Okay!" Peter waved as Emil got into the car and drove away. Emil watched the blonde shrink into the distance in his rear view mirror.

"Why did you lock me out?" Emil asked once the school was out of sight.

"Having friends is good for you." Lukas said, his voice monotone.

"He's not my friend." Emil said and glared out the window, "He's annoying, immature, and an idiot."

"I think he would make a good friend."

"Like Mathias?"

"Mathias isn't my friend.

"Well, Peter Kirkland isn't my friend, and I have no intentions of changing that."

The two lapsed into silence. The car pulled up into their house moments later and they both went inside. The house was identical to all of the others on the block, but it was theirs. It was totally still inside, except Emil's puffin who flew up to his shoulder the moment they got inside.

Just before Emil retreated upstairs to his room, Lukas stopped him, "Peter Kirkland is the younger brother of Arthur Kirkland."

"What of it?" Emil snapped, unable to keep his temper in check. It was unlike Lukas to interfere in his personal life and it wasn't something Emil appreciated.

"Arthur Kirkland is assigned to our case. His team has been overseeing it." Lukas spoke softer now, violet eyes met blue and for a moment they were silent.

"I don't see how that is my problem." Emil said coldly, and tried to push past his older brother.

"Emil, I want you to go over to his house this weekend." Lukas's tone implied it wasn't a request.

"No. He's so stupid, I wouldn't be concerned if his brother is anything like him." Emil snapped, "You have nothing to worry about, they will never catch you guys if Mr. Kirkland is in charge. Besides, it's not like anything has changed, they haven't come any where close to touching you yet."

"I'm taking you off the plan for this weekend." Lukas said, his voice monotone once again, "You will go to the Kirkland's house instead, I'll drop you off before I meet up with Tino and Berwald."

"No. I'm going to help this weekend, I'm not finishing a stupid science project with that kid." Emil glared at his brother, he could feel his anger starting to simmer.

"Tino will cover for you."

"No need, I'll go."

"You'd better call Peter and let him know that you can't make it tomorrow after school, so this weekend is fine."

Emil glared at Lukas, but Lukas's gazed was unwavering. Emil was finally forced to look away, "Fine." He said softly and started up the stairs.

"Thank you." Lukas said from behind him.

Emil didn't look back.

"Hello! This is Peter Kirkland's cell phone! Sorry I didn't answer, but please leave a message and I'll call you back! Thanks so much!"

The phone beeped, ending the recorded messaged. Emil sighed inwardly, Peter even sounded like an idot in recordings.

"Hi Peter, it's Emil." Emil said, "I can't make it tomorrow after all, is this weekend still good for you? Can Lili and I still go over to your house on Saturday to finish the project? Don't bother calling back, just tell me tomorrow at school. Thanks."

Emile hung up and flopped back onto his bed. He was missing a robbery to do a science project. What was the justice in that? Tino would cover for him? Who would cover for Tino? This was stupid. The team needed him. If Lukas was so concerned about Arthur Kirkland all the sudden, maybe something did change. Maybe they had messed up somehow? Nah, Emil doubted it.

The phone rang.

Emil looked at the caller ID, it was Peter. Didn't he say not to call back?

"Hello?"

"Hi Emil! This is Peter! It's okay if you guys come over this weekend! Is ten good for you? Lili won't be able to come until noon, but I thought we could get a head start anyway!"

"Tens' fine."

"Oh good! We could make lunch too! Do you like grilled cheese sandwiches? Oh! My brother might be home Saturday, then he could cook for us! ARTHUR!"

Emil winced and held the phone away from his ear, but he could still hear Peter.

"ARTHUR ARE YOU HOME SATURDAY? YES? CAN YOU MAKE LUNCH FOR ME AND MY FRIENDS? WHAT? MY FRIENDS AND I? WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? COULD YOU MAKE US LUNCH? He said yes, this is going to be so much fun!"

"Yes."

"Yeah! And we could play board games if we finish early! Do you like Monopoly?"

"Sure, I've got to go."

"Okay! See you tomorrow! Don't forget that the history report is due tomorrow and-"

Emil hung up. This was going to be interesting. No, probably not. Playing Monopoly and finishing a science project with Peter was not going to be interesting. At least Lili was going to be there. At least he would get to meet the new detective on the North case. That promised to be interesting at the very least.

 **Yay! New story! I've been thinking about this one for a few weeks now, I want to make these chapters shorter than Restack the Deck's chapters and I wanted to focus on a different set of charecters. So, here you have it, I hope you like it. Please reveiw! Pretty Please!**


	2. Chapter 2

Arthur glared at the computer screen. It was unforgivably confusing. The camera footage showed the van pull up to the bank, someone got out and was immediately let into the bank by another person. In exactly five minutes, the first person came out, got into the car and drove away. There was no moving of boxes of money, or files, or jewels. or anything like that. Clearly the people didn't want to be recognized, otherwise they wouldn't be wearing black ski masks, but they didn't remove anything from the bank via the front entrance. What was the purpose of coming in that way then? Five minutes? That was ridiculously fast for emptying and cleaning a vault. Arthur had no clue what was going on.

It was possible, he supposed, that this was a trick. A group that was never caught on camera, suddenly filmed; that was a little suspicious. If this was a trick however, what was the purpose of showing this?

Arthur sat back in his chair and massaged his temples. It was about ten and he hadn't left this wretched computer since he had gotten home. Arthur turned and glanced at the dinner plate that his brother, Allistor, had brought him. Arthur hated to admit it, but Allistor was a much better cook than he was; it would be a waste to not eat.

As Arthur started to eat, a small head peered quietly around the corner of his office door. Arthur ignored it, but the boy entered the office and quietly sat down on the floor beside Arthur's desk.

"Arthur?" Peter asked carefully, "Is everything okay?"

"Shouldn't you be in bed? You have school tomorrow." Arthur said shortly, "Go away, I have work to do."

"But you're home!" Peter said, "Allistor never brings work home! I'm in high school! I shouldn't have a bed time!"

"You're in high school, start acting like it. Go to bed, I'm not Allistor."

Peter looked hurt, but he stood and left. Arthur listened to his retreating steps and turned his attention back to the camera. He restarted it from the beginning of the day before the break in. It was all normal. He watched for anything: Strange interaction, people loitering, people coming twice, but he saw nothing that caught his attention. It was frustrating, it seemed like there was no set up or preparation. Then again, Arthur wasn't sure what preparation for such a clean crime would look like.

He sighed, and leaned back again, eyes still trained on the screen. His mind wandered as he watched. Francis had sent over his most annoying agent, just before Arthur was going to leave.

"Yo! I was told that you guys need my awesome help!" He had burst into the room, causing everyone to jump.

"Thank you for offering we-" Kiku had started, but he was interrupted by Alfred pushing past him and hugging the newcomer.

"Gilbert!" Alfred had yelped, "I'm so glad Francis sent you! This is going to be great!"

Gilbert had laughed and hugged Alfred back, "Jeez man! It's been forever! You never drop by anymore! Mattasis and I thought you were dead!"

Arthur and Kiku had watched the pair in silence. The last member of Arthur's team, Vash, glared at the pair.

"Excuse me, but we have a job to do!" Vash snapped, "If you haven't noticed, it's about time to clock out!"

"You're on hourly?" Gilbert asked with a smirk, "Sorry man, I forgot you were Arthur's home-base guy."

"Home-base guy?" Vash said, eyes narrowing, "What are you implying?"

"Nothing." Gilbert said with a shrug, "It just must be nice having a tech guy. My team is just three of us, we don't have anyone back here."

"So if it's just three of you, isn't your absence going to put a strain on your teammates?" Kiku asked, polite as ever.

Gilbert had grinned and Arthur remembered feeling a slight dread fill him, "Of course not!" Gilbert had said, "After all, The North case is a whole lot more interesting than what we are on right now."

"What?" Arthur said slowly, "You guys have a string murder case. How are robberies more interesting than that?"

"Nah, we finished up today. Our guy was tried and found guilty." Gilbert said, "We have nothing on and a little bird told me that if you guys don't come up with something soon, The North case is going to be reassigned."

"They wouldn't!" Arthur snapped, "How do you know?"

Gilbert shrugged again and gave Arthur that evil smile, "A little bird told me. I figured that I could get a head start if I started on this case now. Since we have nothing on, this case would go to us if it were to be reassigned."

Vash, Kiku, and Alfred had all looked at Arthur. He remembered the frustration and exhaustion wash over him. Again, his mind ran through the thoughts that had come to mind at the time. He knew he had a good team, they just didn't always work well together. They knew how much he wanted this case closed. Gilbert was going to be working with them now, and this didn't look like a good mix. Rumors of The North case being taken from him was unsettling, but they had the camera footage. Plus, Arthur knew that Francis's team often used some underground contacts to solve their cases, getting in touch with some of the other organized criminals might help with getting at least a few suspects.

Bringing in a suspect would be good. They couldn't take the case from him if he had a suspect. Arthur's eyes glazed over and he stared at the computer screen without really seeing it.

"Gilbert, we are done for today, please meet up with us here tomorrow morning." Arthur had said, trying to sound agreeable.

"No prob! I'll just come in with Alfred." Gilbert smiled devilishly at all of them, then turned and left.

"He's working with us?" Vash said, his tone illumination his displeasure.

"Sorry, I thought he might be useful, I was hoping Francis would send Antonio." Arthur said, "Get me that analysis for the video, we will start trying to find some of the contacts Francis's team has tomorrow."

Vash and Kiku nodded and started cleaning up for the night. Alfred seemed oblivious to the tension Gilbert had caused and continued on normally.

Arthur stared at the screen. Gilbert was going to be difficult to handle, but he really could be useful. On the screen, a thin, pale blonde man was walking in front of the shop, blocking the view to the bank's entrance. The man scanned the items on display with an uncaring air. Arthur rubbed his forehead, he had to have a suspect. He had to keep this case. The man looked up casually, his eyes locked on the camera. Arthur paused and looked at the man. The man looked back, he seemed to be able to see Arthur. Then the man looked back to the display and moved on. Arthur blinked and re winded the film. The man's eyes locked on the camera. He looked to be about Arthur's age, but the worry lines were missing from his face. Arthur blinked, he was drawing suspicion were there was none. It seemed perfectly reasonable to look at a security camera, Arthur knew he often looked at them for fun and mentally tried to find blind spots in stores. There was no reason to be suspicious of this man, but Arthur was. The guy looked directly at the camera, he already knew were it was.

"Arthur? I'm going to bed, don't forget to turn the thermostat down before you finish for the night." Allistor called.

"Okay!" Arthur called back and glanced at this watch, midnight. He sighed and started the film again. He needed to come up with something before work tomorrow. He also needed sleep.

* * *

Emil stared at his teacher and tried not to fall asleep. He hadn't been able to sleep all night because Lukas had spent the night pacing.

Step, Step, Step, Pause, Turn, Step, Step, Step, Step, Pause, Turn, Step, Step, Step, Step, Step, Pause, Turn, All Night Long.

It wasn't like Lukas to pace. Not sleeping was normal, but anxiety? Something really must be wrong if Lukas was this nervous about it. Pacing and Pacing, all bloody night long. Emil was a light sleeper and Lukas's pacing seemed to ring through the quiet house like a jack hammer. Emil had complained this morning, but Lukas had been too busy pacing to notice. Emil had to walk to the bus stop. Emil had made it to third hour, so lunch was next, then only three more hours before school was over. Then the weekend! Today was Friday. Saturday tomorrow. They were doing something tomorrow. Emil couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. Robbing a bank? No, that was last month. What were The North doing tomorrow? Something. Something that might be important.

Step, Step, Step, Step.

"Mr. Steilsson! I thought better of you!"

Emil jerked up and looked at his teacher towering above him, "Pardon?"

"Detention! At lunch! Sleeping in class is inexcusable!"

"Right." Emil wondered if sleeping during detention was excusable. If not, he would sleep during lunch. Oh wait, detention was during lunch.

Detention was held in the In School Suspension room. Emil walked in, handed his slip to the bored looking teacher and sat down. There were a few other kids there, he recognized most of them, but ignored them. Detention started. As the door closed the teacher continued on his crossword puzzle and kids pulled out their phones and started talking quietly. Emil slouched down in his seat and closed his eyes.

"Hey Icy." A soft voice said from behind him, "I'm rather surprised to see you here."

Emil's tired mind froze, he knew his body had grow tense, and he forced himself to relax and make no other sign that he had heard.

"Hey, you don't have to ignore me. I know what you are, Mr. Top-Of-The-Class."

Emil slouched lower in his chair before sitting up and turning around. He knew this kid and was more than mildly annoyed. "What do you want Vladimir?"

"I just want to talk!" Vlad said with a toothy grin, "Com'on Icy, don't like to talk?"

Emil forced himself to stay calm, "Why do you keep calling me that?"

Vlad leaned forward, "Please, I have a second life too. I'm just much less of a, what's the word? Hot shot? Big wig?" Vlad shrugged, but Emil knew he was looking for a reaction, "I'm just less important."

"I have no clue what you are talking about." Emil said and turned back and slouched down, "Now, if you would excuse me, I'm trying to sleep."

"Oh, please Iceland! I just wanted to congratulate The North on their latest job! That bank thing was really impressive!" Vlad said, his voice soft and cocky, "What, I heard it took you guys less than five minutes."

Emil couldn't stop himself from sitting up straight and spinning around. He must have looked alarmed, because Vladimir smirked. "How do you know about that? The police report isn't out yet." Emil hissed, suddenly Lukas's pacing made sense.

"I hear things." Vlad said, "I heard about your stint with the bank and I heard that someone found a camera. The police will be onto you guys before you know it."

Emil was silent then smiled back at Vlad, "I doubt it. They'll never come close and you know it."

"I could turn you in."

"You could and we could have your evidence discounted and turn you in." Emil said, "The police will never have anything on us. They don't even know how many people are in The North."

"I could tell them."

"You don't know."

"Four."

"Wrong."

"Liar."

"Not." It was Emil's turn to smirk, it was nice to know that even the criminal network didn't know much about The North. "Name who you know."

Vladimir looked uncertain for the first time, "Iceland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden."

"Do you know who the people are behind the code names?" Emil could see that Vlad didn't and again he smiled.

Vlad just shrugged, "I know that Mr. Emil is Iceland. I suspect that his friend Leon is Norway. Beyond that, I don't have a clue."

Emil couldn't hid his surprise, "Leon? Norway? Don't make me laugh! You're still missing someone though."

"Oh? Enlighten me then."

Emil was sorely tempted to tell Vlad about the fifth member of The North, but he knew Lukas would be mad at him. Tino was a secret weapon of sorts and knowledge of a more than four of them was enough to make Vlad dig around. Emil shrugged and shook his head.

"Awe well, actually, I was supposed to contact you about a job." Vlad said, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of paper, "My boss wants to hire The North."

"You know we only take interesting jobs." Emil said, "It has to challenge us."

Vlad nodded, "Yeah, we know and we think you guys will like it. We weren't actually sure if you were Iceland, but you gave yourself away pretty quick."

Emil frowned, Lukas would be mad. "So, do you have someone checking Leon out?"

"Yep." Vlad said and offered the wade of paper to Emil, "This is a summery of the details, if you're interested-"

"We will contact you." Emil said and took the paper. He shoved it into his own pocket and gave Vlad a smile, "Thanks Mr. Vampire."

Vlad's face didn't change. They both knew the other's code name for the underground. They both knew the other's double life. They both knew that they may never speak again. It wasn't hostile, it was just business.

The bell rang and Emil hefted his backpack onto his back and left.


	3. Chapter 3

"Well, who can you contact?"

Gilbert shrugged, "The criminal network is a pain to use to your advantage, but I can bring in a kid that ought to know something."

Arthur suppressed a sigh, he supposed that was the best he could ask for, but he had been hoping for something more dramatic. Gilbert acted like those cops from the movies with secret agents underground in the criminal world and lots of fast cars and explosions. Arthur always found those sorts of movies silly, unrealistic, but interesting in the romantically adventurous light that they put one law enforcement. Arthur could see Gilbert being one of the annoying side characters that died halfway through the film.

"When?" Arthur asked, forcing himself to focus on the task at hand. His mind always wandered like that when he was tired. He had been tired for the last few months.

"Wow, aren't we in a hurry!" Gilbert chuckled, "As soon as school gets off, if you want to go wait at the high school with me, you can."

Arthur did not want to wait in a car with a prick like Gilbert. "Sure, Kiku can come too."

Kiku looked at Arthur like he had been slapped. Clearly, Gilbert wasn't very popular with him either. Or at any rate, the thought of sitting in a car with him while they waited was unappealing, "Yes sir." Kiku said stiffly and started collecting his papers.

"Awe, can I come?" Alfred said, popping up from behind his desk.

"No." Arthur wasn't sure how much high strung, full of them self, idiot he could take right now. It occurred to him that there was probably a reason those silly cop movies only had one character like Gilbert and Alfred, any more than one would make the movie unbearable.

"Can you give me a minute before we head off?" Gilbert asked.

"Sure, we'll meet you out by the cars." Arthur said and grabbed his jacket.

Their unit had only one car assigned to them, but it was enough. Arthur fiddled with the radio dials and listened to the police dispatcher sending out someone to a house break in. Kiku leaded against the car, he was reading some book in Japanese. Arthur noted that Kiku was wearing glasses. He didn't usually, so he must wear contacts.

The door to the building opened and Gilbert came out. He had changed his cloths and was now wearing baggy black pants, a white shit, and a leather jacket. As he walked toward them, Gilbert pulled a red plaid bandanna out of the bag he was carrying and tied it around his neck.

"Sorry, that took longer than I thought it would." Gilbert said with an apologetic shrug, "Lets go."

"Why are you wearing that to a school?" Arthur asked warily. Gilbert looked like a punk rocker kid, not like a respectable detective. Arthur didn't want Gilbert to give the rest of his team a bad name. Then again, Arthur wasn't sure Alfred ever really looked respectable either. "Sorry, why are you wearing that at all?"

"If I look like a cop, they'll run before I get near them." Gilbert said and slid into the back seat of the car, "Lets go."

"Excuse me, you look like some delinquent." Arthur snapped, not moving to turn the car on. Kiku looked on silently, but he clearly agreed.

"That's the point." Gilbert said with a smirk, "I was lucky that I haven't really grown since high school, so this still fits."

"That's what you wore in high school?"

"Yep. You said I look like a delinquent. Well, I kinda was."

"Why are you a detective again?"

"What? You don't believe in second chances changing people?" Gilbert's relaxed look had changed to one of annoyance. He didn't seem to think this conversation relevant, which disturbed Arthur all the more.

Arthur didn't want to challenge Gilbert's ability as a detective, but the idea that he was once a criminal himself made Arthur . . . . . uneasy. Arthur didn't think a leopard could change his spots. Still, getting into a professional detective agency wasn't easy, so maybe Gilbert really was a good guy now. Arthur shrugged and turned the car on. Kiku sat down and put his book and glasses away. They drove in silence.

Gilbert rolled down his window and Kiku got his book out again. Gilbert rolled up his window. Arthur tried to ignore the tension that had arose. Gilbert rolled down his window.

"Please stop that." Arthur said.

"Sorry." Gilbert said and left the window down.

They approached the school to see a line of cars parked outside the front entrance. Bored parents were waiting patiently and the parking lot was full of more parents and siblings and empty cars that probably belonged to the older high school kids.

"Park crossed the street." Gilbert said, pointing to the neighborhood beside the school, "I don't want the kids running just because there's a police car parked too close."

"Would they do that?" Kiku asked, "The police sometimes oversee that the speed limit is obeyed around the school zone."

"I would have." Gilbert said, "Plus, the kids I'm looking for are rather flighty."

"Have you used them as a resource before?" Arthur asked and parked the car.

"Yep, they aren't major offenders of anything, so people tend to overlook them," Arthur saw Gilbert smile in the rear view mirror, "But kids hear things. People tend not to pay attention to the little, unimportant people. These kids aren't in any loop that I know of, but I'm sure they'll know something or they know someone who knows something."

"How do you know they'll tell the truth?"

"I don't." Gilbert said and got out of the car. He opened the bag he had brought and took out two simple jackets, "If you guys want to watch me work my magic, wear these."

Arthur got out of the car and took a jacket. He didn't want Gilbert doing anything stupid and he wanted to see the kids Gilbert was going to talk to. The jacket was huge and baggy, but he pulled it on and tried to straighten it.

Kiku just shook his head. "I'll stay here, radio me if you need to." Kiku said and turned another page in his book.

Gilbert nodded and shoved the other jacket back into his bag. He put the bag in the car and glanced at his watch. "We'd better hurry, the bell is going to ring soon." He said and look at Arthur, "That look suits you."

"I look like a hoodlum." Arthur said and tried again to make the big jacket look presentable.

Gilbert laughed and started walking towards the school, "It's big on me too. It's my brother's."

Arthur followed slowly, scanning the school grounds, "Are you sure about this? What if we can't find the kids?"

"Then we can try again Monday." Gilbert said, "Put your hood up, you're still managing to look like a cop. Relax."

Gilbert moved onto the school grounds and sat down under the flag pole. Arthur put up his hood and leaned against the pole in an effort to look relaxed. Gilbert glanced at him and laughed again, shaking his head, "You're hopeless. Don't ever go undercover, you'd never pull it off."

Arthur glared at Gilbert, "Yes I could! I could go to Italy right now, and no one would ever look at me twice!"

Gilbert snorted, "Keep dreaming! You are so obvious, it's almost sad! You'd make a horrible criminal!"

"I'm going to take that as a complement."

The school bell rang and momentarily the grounds were flooded with a river of high school kids. Arthur grew tense, scanning the crowd. He didn't know what they were looking for, but he looked all the same. He spotted Peter's bright blonde head bouncing beside a boy with white hair and a little blonde girl. Wasn't Peter having friends over this weekend? Wasn't he supposed to make lunch for them or something? Arthur remembered Peter talking to him about something like that, but he hadn't been paying much attention. Out of the corner of his eye, Arthur saw Gilbert stand and enter the sea of students. After that, it was like Gilbert was gone. Arthur looked around wildly, searching for Gilbert's white hair and red bandanna. There! Arthur started after him, moving as fast as he could in the throng of kids.

Gilbert had pulled a little brown haired boy out of the river and was talking to him. Another boy stood a few feet away, watching warily. Arthur approached Gilbert and saw the kid look at him quickly.

"Arthur, this is Aurel." Gilbert said and pointed to the older boy watching them, "That's Vladimir. They hear things."

Arthur looked at the boy, he looked to be a freshman, so a little younger than Peter, who as a sophomore.

"We don't talk to police." Vlad said, scowling at them.

"Hey! You know me!" Gilbert said, "You're not still mad at me are you?"

"Of course not. We just don't talk to cops." Vlad's voice was cold and Aurel looked scared.

Gilbert put an arm around Aurel and smiled at Vlad, "That's fine, we just want to know what you know about The North."

Both Aurel and Vlad grew tense. Their eyes locked. Gilbert casually reached into his pocket and removed a twenty dollar bill.

"I'm not asking you to rat out your boss, I'm just asking about locations, names, identities." Gilbert gave Aurel a squeeze and held the twenty in front of him, "Just tell us the rumors."

Vlad looked at the money, face tense, "We're not that cheap." He said softly.

The flood of students had lessened to a trickle, and the few stragglers ignored them. Arthur reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He barley glanced at the bills before pulling out another two twenties.

Vlad smiled, if Arthur had ever thought that Gilbert's smile was evil, he realized he was wrong. This high school had a way of looking terrifying. Vlad approached them slowly, Aurel still looking scared. Vlad snatched Gilbert's twenty and folded it carefully in half.

"The North has four people for sure, possibly more." Vlad said and put the twenty into his pocket. He reached over and plucked one of Arthur's bills out of his hand and folded that in half too, "The ones I know of go by the names, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden." He put this bill in his pocket too and took Arthur's other twenty, he looked at it, glanced at Aurel, and looked back at the bill.

Gilbert removed his arm from around Aurel and gave the kid a little push in Vlad's direction. The boy scurried behind Vladimir and peered at the two police with wide eyes. The school grounds were now empty except for the two pairs of people. A soft breeze swept between them, and Vlad offered the twenty back to Arthur.

Gilbert's eyes narrowed, "Is that all you've got?"

Vladimir said nothing and offered the twenty to Gilbert. Arthur looked between Gil and Vlad. It seemed to be a battle of will. Both stood there frozen, eyes locked and faces expressionless.

Gilbert won.

Vladimir took the twenty, folded it in half, and stuffed it in his pocket, "The North may have a job coming up soon."

"With in the next week?" Arthur asked.

"Soon." Vlad looked between Arthur and Gilbert again, then turned and walked away. Aurel following at his heels.

Gilbert and Arthur watched them go.

Emil watched them go. He watched the money being exchanged. He watched the police walk away and back to their car. Emil watched and Emil had heard all that had been said. Emil exited the school for grounds for the second time.

He had needed to get rid of Peter and Lili before he back tracked, and it hadn't been hard. Quick little lie about leaving a book in detention and he had walked back. The moment he had seen the guy leaning on the flagpole, he had known he was a cop. Seeing that other one pull Aurel out of the crowd had scared Emil. Aurel was Vladimir's little brother, and Leon had mentioned Aurel calling him Nor earlier. If the police were going to find a contact, they had come to the right place. Emil didn't think that Vlad would give him away, but he didn't know what else Vlad might say.

Vlad had said all the wrong things. Well, not all the wrong things, but almost. Vlad hadn't told them who Iceland was. That was good, but Vlad had told them who to ask for. They knew the names, well, the code names, of The North. Vlad had given the police a key to finding out more, now they knew what to ask for. Plus, if they went to Vlad, they probably knew exactly who to ask.

Emil walked to where Lukas's car was usually parked. It wasn't there. The buses had already left, so Emil sat down on the curb and pulled out his phone. He scrolled through his contacts and selected one. He hit send.

The phone rang three times, before someone picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hi, it's Emil."

"Oh! Hi Emil! Why are you calling Berwald?"

"Why do you have Berwald's phone, Tino?"

"He was over here earlier and left it. Is anything wrong?"

"Lukas isn't here to pick me up from school, have you heard from him?"

"No."

"Is he okay?"

"I'm sorry, Emil, I don't know."

"I didn't want to call Mattasis."

"Why not?"

"He's annoying and probably drunk. It's a Friday. If Lukas is with him, I don't want to know."

There was a silence on the other end of the phone, the Tino sighed, "Here, I've got to bring Berwald his phone, so I'll come get you, okay? I can drop you off at home."

"Thanks Tino."

"Just stay there, I'll be there in a minute."

"Thanks."

"Okay, bye!"

"Bye."

Emil hung up and watched as a police car drove by. The white haired guy who was talking to Vlad was seated in the back. A blonde guy was driving, he was wearing that over sized sweater. Emil watched them. The white haired guy glanced at Emil as the car passed and waved. Emil didn't wave back, but watched the car turn the corner and disappear. Those people. The three guys in the car, they were the enemy. They would put The North in jail. They would destroy everything Emil knew and take everyone he cared about from him. Emil hated them.

 **There we go! New Chapter! I'm not sure when I will get the next one up, but at least this one was fastish.**

 **Special thanks to writingandchocolate and Angeldonut for reviewing! Thank you so much! You guys are great!**

 **Everyone else should review too! 3**


	4. Chapter 4

Arthur drove with a smile on his face. It wasn't much, the information, but it was better than anything else they had so far. Iceland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. The four code names raced through his head and he had already labeled his cigar smoking criminal in the dark room as Denmark. Of course Denmark as the leader. That made sense. Denmark was the mastermind behind The North's beautiful crimes. Denmark was the enemy.

"That was fun!" Gilbert said as he waved to a kid sitting on the sidewalk, "I wish Alfred could have come to witness my awesomeness!"

"You did good." Arthur admitted, "Although I think sixty dollars for three sentences is a bit expensive."

"Yeah, that was a bit extreme, but I think this was a success!" Gilbert said, "He was holding back though. Must have something that would jeopardize his boss or something. He knew more."

"I thought so too. Do you know what you could do to find out what he wasn't telling us?" Arthur asked.

"Yep, we need to find out who the Vampire is working under and I bet those people are trying to work out some deal or something with The North." Gilbert stretched back and clasped his hands behind his head.

"Put your seat belt on." Arthur said.

"It is."

"What makes you think they would be working with The North?"

Gilbert grinned, "I have a suspicion that The North are mercenaries." He shrugged, "Just a thought, but their irregular jobs says that either they have a very strange set of buyers for what they steal, or they start out stealing for someone else."

Arthur nodded, "I'd thought of that, but it doesn't make sense why they would break into a bank vault and an art gallery all for someone else. What do they get out of it? Mercenary groups tend to do less extreme jobs."

"Hey, I just said it was a suspicion." Gilbert said with a shrug, "You're right that it is a little over kill for a mercenary group, but I still think that's what they are."

* * *

"So, are you still mad at Mathias?" Tino asked after a moment of silent driving.

Emil glared at the dashboard, Mathias was that last thing on his mind right now, "No."

"How was last weekend's driving lessons?"

Driving lessons was another thing on the list of things that Emil didn't want to think about, "Fine."

"So, you are mad at him?"

"I don't see why the guy who bikes everywhere should be the one to teach me how to drive!" Emil snapped, "That's beside the point though! I got contacted for another job."

"Oh? What is it?" Tino's tone had gone from gentle concern to a slight dread.

"I don't know, I haven't looked yet." Emil stared out the window and sighed, "So, you haven't heard from Lukas all day?"

"No, sorry." Tino's tone returned to that of concern, "I'm sure he's okay."

"The police were here today." Emil said, "They talked to the guy who contacted me."

"Oh. What did he say?"

"Not much and too much."

Tino drove in silence, then sighed, "Well," He said slowly, "I guess that Mathias will deal with it. It's his call anyway. We will still have tomorrow's job."

Tino turned into the drive. Lukas's car was parked in it's usual spot with Mathias's bike leaning against it.

"I swear, if Lukas is drunk, I will kill Mathias." Emil said.

"Lukas doesn't' get drunk." Tino said and got out of the car, "He doesn't put up with Mathias's-"

"Mathias is a bad influence."

Tino chuckled and ruffled Emil hair lovingly, "You're not his mother. Lukas can take care of himself."

"I hate him."

"No you don't."

They entered the house to see Lukas still pacing. Mathias was sitting at the kitchen counter, a row of empty beer bottles in front of him. He looked up and grinned as Tino and Emil entered.

"Yo! Hows it goin'?" He said, he swayed in his chair and his speech was slurred. "You're late! We were going to have a meeting without you."

"We were going to have a meeting?" Tino asked, unsure, "I thought we were still good to go tomorrow!"

"We are!" Mathias said with a laugh, "Luke is just stressing out and trying to change everything because some camera!"

Lukas continued pacing, ignoring Mathias and the others. Emil scowled at his brother and darted past him into the kitchen.

"We aren't guna get caught!" Mathias said earnestly to Tino, "We're not! We are tu good tu get caught! You know that right? You won't let us get caught! Will you?"

Tino backed up, looking uncomfortable, "Um, that's not my job, right? I just make sure we can get in and out! I don't cover our tracks!" His face turned pink and he looked about to panic, his words almost tumbling over each other, "I get us in and out! I make sure nothing is hurt when we get in and out! I re locked the vault! I control the security systems tomorrow! Right? You aren't going to change me are you? I don't want to do anything else, but I suppose if I must, I'll take Emil's job and clean up after everything and-"

"Take a deep breath, Tino." Lukas said without looking up, "Mathias is just drunk. Ignore him. You're fine."

Tino still looked unsure, he swallowed and looked between Lukas and the reeling form of The North's leader. Emil started to fill a mixing bowl with water.

"Thanks for giving me a ride." Emil said, directed toward Tino, but he glared at Lukas, "I missed the bus, trying to find out what the police wanted with my contact."

Lukas barley changed his pace, but Tino looked nervously between the two brothers now, "No problem!" He said quickly, "Hey, if anything changes, let me know, but I've really got to get Berwald's phone back to him."

"Yeah, thanks again." Emil said coldly, eyes boring into Lukas. Tino nodded quickly.

"Bye!" Tino said and darted toward the door.

"Bring Berwald back here, will you?" Lukas said in his usual monotone.

"Will!" Tino escaped the tension into the driveway and his car could be heard driving away moments later.

"It's cruel to stress him out like that." Lukas said, "It's not fair to him."

"It's not fair to make me call him because someone wasn't there to pick me up and I missed the bus because the police were at the school talking to a guy who knows about us!" Emil snapped. He heft the mixing bowl of water up and turned quickly, splashing it over Mathias.

Mathias jumped up yelping. He slipped and sprawled on the floor, "EMIL!" He yelped and staggered to his feet dripping wet, "What the hell was that for?"

"You stink." Emil said and started refilling the mixing bowl again, "I was helping you rid yourself of that stench."

"Screw you too!" Mathias said and started walking unsteadily toward the guest room, "I'm taking some of the extra cloths. You owe me a whole night of free beer, Emil!"

"I'm not legal to buy, sorry." Emil said icily, "My legal guardian can take care of it though." Emil looked pointedly at Lukas, who ignored him.

Lukas didn't change his pacing as Mathias swaggered by him and disappeared into the guest room.

"Jeez! I'm sorry I was trying to save our butts and find out what the police knew!" Emil snapped and started out of the kitchen and toward the stairs.

"Say that again." Lukas said slowly, his tone dangerous.

Emil stopped and glared at the ground. He didn't know why he was so mad. Lukas wasn't drunk, he wasn't even humoring Mathias, but Lukas's uncaring, anxious pacing terrified Emil. He didn't know how to handle his level headed brother being stressed. Lukas was the mind behind The North. Mathias was, without a doubt, in charge, but Lukas orchestrated the actual crimes. Berwald was the tech guy, he kept them connected and helped Tino with the security systems. Emil was the back up, he cleaned everything moments after it was touched or changed, he and Lukas ensured that no evidence was ever avalibe to the police. Tino, was the secret weapon though. Tino was the one who actually broke them in, he was a genius about it, not even the rest of the criminal world knew how the North got in and out of their places, and it was all Tino.

Emil had once asked Tino how he managed it, and he had just laughed and said, "If Santa can get into every house to deliver presents on Christmas, then I should be able to get into any house too."

Emil forced his mind from it's wandering and looked up at Lukas.

Step, Step, Step, Step, Pause, Turn, Step, Step.

Emil didn't want to admit it, but he was scared. Seeing Lukas like this, and Mathias that slobbering drunk, was scary. Mathias had a wonderful head for liquor, he rarely got wasted. Lukas wasn't emotional, but this over welling show of anxiety was unsettling. The two together scared Emil. They must have talked and they must have not liked the solution they had come to. Something really must have gone wrong with the last job.

"The police know we are going to be doing something soon." Emil said slowly. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. Being mad didn't help anything, "And that there are four of us, and have our code names."

"They don't know about Finland?"

"No."

"Who told them?"

"Same guy who contacted me with this." Emil took Vladimir's crumpled paper out of his pocket and smoothed it out on the table. "Two detectives got to him and his brother after school."

Lukas leaned over and looked over the building blueprint. There was a red X on one room. There was a note at the bottom.

We want the child. We will pay 300,000.

Lukas and Emil looked over the crumpled paper and Lukas sighed, "We don't do kidnappings."

"That's a lot of money."

Lukas straightened and started to pace again. Emil watched him go back and forth. A cold dread filling him with each step.

Mathias entered, he took one look at the paper and crumpled it up again with a dark laugh, "Who do they think we are? We don't do kidnappings."

"It's a lot."

"We don't do kidnappings." Mathias said again, he walked carefully to the fridge and got himself another beer, "That's final."

"What do we want to do about the information leak?" Lukas asked.

"Nothing." Mathias said, he rubbed his temples and sat down again, he glanced blearily over the empty beer bottles and sighed, "There is nothing we can do right now. Just do the job tomorrow."

"Maybe we can use the informant to our advantage?"

Mathias looked thoughtful for a split second before grinning like an idiot. "Good idea Nor! You come up with something!"

Lukas winced at the use of his alias, and nodded mutely.

"Are you staying for dinner then?" Emil asked, moving past them into the kitchen again. The water from when he drenched Mathias still covered the floor.

"Yeah, and you totally invited Berwald and Tino over!" Mathias said with a laugh, "What's for dinner?"

Lukas stopped pacing and glanced at Mathias with distaste then looked over to Emil. Lukas stood frozen for a moment the nodded and followed Emil.

"Emil, make a salad, I'll make soup." Lukas said.

Emil nodded and started mopping up the water from the floor. Mathias watched them, drinking. His usual chipper, arrogance was gone and even when Tino and Berwald arrived, dinner that night was unusually sullen.

 **I don't like how this chapter turned out, but here you go. I will try to do better on the next chapter. I will promise that the next chapter is going to have more action. Arthur's team is going to try and make a move and the North have a crime to commit XD**


	5. Chapter 5

Vladimir had stood outside of the house for about an hour now. At least, Emil had noticed him an hour ago. Emil didn't want to go talk to the Vampire, but it wasn't like he could let Lukas. He didn't want Vlad figuring out Lukas was Norway.

It was eight when Emil finally stepped into the yard and looked at Vladimir.

"No."

"Why not?" Vlad look genuinely surprised, "We thought that would be interesting!"

Emil walked closer to Vlad and lowered his voice, "We don't do kidnappings. If your boss wants something stolen, ask again, until then, we have no business to do with you."

Vlad wasn't intimidated. He shrugged and smirked, "Your loss, we will just have to get someone else." Vlad turned and started to walk down the empty street, humming softly to himself.

"Vlad?" Emil called out, unable to stop himself. Vlad turned curiously, and Emil looked down, "Thank you. For yesterday with the cops." Emil wasn't happy Vlad had told Arthur what he did, but he wanted Vladimir to know that he appreciated not being ratted out. Vlad didn't say who Iceland was. Iceland was in debt to the Vampire.

Vlad smirked again, "I didn't do it for you." With that he turned and walked away.

Emil watched him go, then returned inside; he had a science project to prepare for.

Peter's house was pretty without being outlandish. It was a big estate and Lukas dropped him off at the drive before leaving. The North had an less than half an hour to set up, so Emil didn't begrudge Lukas the hasty goodbye.

"EMIL! YOU CAME!" Emil nearly jumped out of his skin as Peter burst through the door and tackled him in a hug.

"Hi Peter." Emil gasped as he tried to wriggle free of the smaller boy's grip, "We have a project to do, why wouldn't I come?"

"I was getting nervous!" Peter said, letting Emil up, "You said you would be here at ten, and it's ten oh five!"

Emil just looked at Peter.

"I was afraid something had come up and maybe you wouldn't be able to make it, or maybe you got in a car accident or something!" Peter said with an earnestness that was hard to not find disturbing. Did he really think that? Emil couldn't tell if Peter really was an idiot or not.

"Um." Emil stared slowly, "The traffic was a bit bad, I guess."

"Well, you're here now!" Peter said and grabbed Emil's hand, leading him inside, "I have everything set up for the project, the teacher said it was three parts, the research paper, the presentation board, and the in class presentation. I figured we could do the paper now and start on the board when Lili gets here since she's all artsy!"

"Okay." Emil said, looking around the house as Peter dragged him through it. It was nice, much nicer than his house. Much, Much nicer than Berwald's house. Tino lived in an apartment and so did Mathias, so this was better than thier's as well.

"Whoa! Slow down there lad!" Came a laugh from behind them. Peter stopped and turned, grinning at his older brother.

He was tall and had a mop of red hair, Emil immediately didn't like him. He had all the signs of someone who drank too much and he reminded Emil vaguely of Mathias.

"Allistor!" Peter said with a laugh, "This is Emil! Emil, this is Allistor! He's going to work today, but Arthur's home!"

"Hi." Emil said and bobbed his head. Yeah, this was the sort of guy who Mathias would like, he was loud and confident and acted like he owned the place. Then again, maybe he did own this place.

Allistor grinned wider and ruffled Peter's hair, "You boys have that project today? Well, I made sandwiches and left them in the fridge for lunch."

"Arthur said he would cook for us!" Peter said, bouncing away and fixing his hair.

Allistor shook his head and lowered his voice to a conspiratory tone, "You don't want to eat Arthur's cooking! It might kill ya!"

"I heard that!"

From around the corner came the dreaded Arthur Kirkland. He was had unruly blonde hair like Peter's and ridiculous eyebrows. He started talking about the art of culinary skills and glared at Peter and Allistor while they laughed at him. This seemed like a pretty normal family. Emil couldn't help but look at Arthur and see the enemy though. Arthur had been one of the ones talking to Vlad. Arthur was the lead detective on the North case. Arthur was the enemy.

Arthur didn't look much like an enemy though. He looked like a tired, stressed out guy on his day off, who was arguing with his family about his cooking skills. He looked pretty normal. Then again, Emil supposed all of the North looked pretty normal too.

Arthur could be normal and still be the enemy. If anything, a normal enemy sounded a whole lot better than a super smart enemy or something like that. Lukas or Mathias, or even Berwald as an enemy would be bad. Emil couldn't help but feel smug about being on the winning side.

* * *

Arthur flipped through The North case file and tried to ignore the buzz of voices coming from the living room. Peter had friends over to do some project or something. Arthur hadn't met Emil and Lili before, but he recognized them as the kids who had been walking with Peter the other day. Emil had that startling white hair and treated the world with a mild boredom, while Lili was cute, quiet, and polite. As it turned out, Lili was Vash's little sister, Arthur never would have guessed until Vash dropped her off. Both of them struck Arthur as good kids. Peter was the noisiest of the three, and Arthur could hear him talking excitedly about birds or something. Arthur knew they expected lunch at sometime, but he hadn't bothered to make anything yet. He stood and put the case file down. The North could wait a few moments while he made the kids lunch.

As he passed the living room, he saw what looked like an explosion of construction paper and pictures. The three were sitting on the ground moving things around on a presentation board.

"Arthur!" Peter yelp looking up, "When's lunch?"

Arthur scratched his head and shrugged, "What do you want?"

Peter looked at his friends, wide eyed, "What do you guys want?"

"I'm good with anything really." Emil said without looking up from the presentation board. He moved a picture up and a typed paragraph down, putting a sheet of construction paper behind it.

"Whatever is easiest for you, would be fine." Lili said with a little smile, "Thank you so much for having us over."

"No problem!" Peter said, "How about bacon sandwiches?"

"Just bacon?" Arthur asked, he wasn't sure they had enough bacon for all four of them. Of course, he could always eat something else.

"Yes!" Peter said and laughed, "I guess tomatoes and lettuce would be good too."

Arthur nodded and moved past them into the kitchen, he scanned the fridge and found where Allistor had hidden the bacon. It had occurred to him that this was one of the few days he had off in quite a while. He had been making a conscious effort to relax and worry less, after all there wasn't much he could do on the North case until his team had gotten the report back on that car from the camera. Arthur wanted to start looking for more word on the street about the North. On Friday, after they had gotten back from the school, he had given Vash the job of combing through police reports again, and Kiku was supposed to organize crosscheck that kids information with the office's database. Alfred had thrown a fit that their team hadn't gone out to look at the crime scene again, but Arthur hadn't seen the point. The police had been through in their report and he didn't want to spend anymore of his life staring at that clean vault. Just before they had called it a night on Friday, Alfred and Vash had gotten in another argument. Arthur couldn't remember what it was about, it probably wasn't even important. At least they had today to cool off. Arthur's team argued a lot more than he like, but he argued with them too, so he supposed they were all to blame. Gilbert had spent the rest of Friday sitting on the ground next to Alfred's desk and chatting about nothing. He was an annoyance, but he had been useful.

Arthur's phone buzzed, that wasn't good. No one ever called him.

"Hello?"

"Arthur! We caught them! I just got a call from Kiku, the police contacted him, there was a break in to a storage container with the North's card!" Alfred said, excitement made him talk fast, so he was almost uncomprehensible, "They think it took place less than an hour ago!"

"What?" Arthur snapped, "What makes them think that?"

"They found tire tracks less than an hour old! Vash is already over there and has the report from the camera about that car! It matches the model!"

Arthur thought he might dance with joy, this was the best thing that had happened since the camera! No, this was better! If it took place less than an hour ago, the North might still be in the area! He doubted it, but maybe!

"Text me the location and details, I'll be right there.!" Arthur said, rushing out of the kitchen and grabbing his jacket, "Is the rest of the team already there?"

"Everyone except me and Gilbert, I was going to pick him up on the way. Kiku and Vash are handling things though." Alfred said, Arthur heard a crash from the other end of the phone and Alfred cussed, "Sorry, I've got to go, I'll meet you there!"

Arthur hung up and stuffed his phone in his pocket, struggling into his jacket. Suddenly he froze, "Hey! Peter! I just got a call on my case! I've got to go! I'll be back as soon as I can!"

Peter's head poked from around the corner to the living room and he frowned, but Arthur was already pulling the door shut.

Arthur drove like a mad man, the moment he was at the storage lot, Vash hurried up with a folder. Police were everywhere and Kiku was over talking with a group of them.

"It was just lucky that the break in was discovered so quickly." Vash said, and pointed to a clump of police with a pair of nervous looking young men, "The storage unit belongs to those guy's parent, the Vargas, and it was just chance that they had come to pick up a refrigerator to give to a friend, and they found the unit was clean, had been reorganized, and a few trunks were missing. They called it in immediately, and the police chief noticed the tire tracks in the dirt around back. The had a team out to look at it and they said it was an hour old at most."

Arthur shook his head with a grin, "This is amazing! Thank goodness for friends who need refrigerators! You have the finished analysis of that van?" Vash nodded, "Good, send a copy to all of the police units in this area. We need a license plate and tell them to stop all vehicles matching the description."

"I all ready have." Vash said and Arthur smiled, but Vash turned his attention back to his folder, "Those idiots aren't coming are they?"

Arthur's face fell and hardened, clearly Vash was still mad about yesterday's argument, "If you're referring to Alfred and Gilbert, yes they are. Please try to get along. At least be civil."

Vash gave a curt nod and Arthur suppressed a sigh. He knew he had a good team, he just wish they worked together better. "All right, let me see the scene."

Vash lead him to the back entrance of the unit and gasped. This was a huge storage unit. It wasn't the biggest that he had ever seen, but it was certainly impressive. He didn't even want to think about how long it must have taken to clean it, but clean it was. Spotless. Everything had been organized to be stacked nicely against the walls and there was nice walkway between everything. How long did this take? Five minutes for a vault was ridiculous, but this was a storage unit! Maybe a day? Although, knowing The North, it probably took them less than an hour. Arthur marveled at the spotless floor and even looked behind and under some of the boxes; swept clean.

"Dust everything." Arthur said slowly, "A place this big, they must have messed up and missed something. Where was the card found?"

"Here." Vash said, walking past Arthur and further into the unit. He pointed to the ground that appeared to be the exact center of the middle aisle. Vash looked around and sighed, "It's going to take forever to find fingerprints in this."

Arthur nodded, but smiled, "On the up side, to reorganize everything, they must have touched everything."

The door bust open, "YO! We're here!" Alfred said striding into the building with a grin, Gilbert followed him, looking around curiously.

"Less than an hour ago? That's crazy good lucky." Gilbert said and yawned, "But I'm wishing they had waited til my nap was over."

"We all had things to do, but this is our job." Vash said coldly, not looking at the pair of newcomers.

Arthur sighed and looked around the storage unit again. That slight feeling of admiration filled him. How on earth did they do it?

"Well, lets get started looking for prints, get Kiku to check if they used the same cleaning fluid as last time and someone go interview the Vargas." Arthur said and started out to his car again to get equipment.

"I call it!" Alfred said quickly, "Gilbert and I will interview the Vargas!"

"Talk to Kiku on your way out." Vash said with that same, icy tone.

Arthur wished that Vash and Alfred didn't clash so much. Still, he and Alfred had enough heated arguments to make Vash look like Alfred's best friend. Kiku got along with everyone, mostly because he talked so little, but occasionally he took sides and made conflict worse.

Arthur's phone rang.

"Hell-"

"Arthur! The fire alarm went off and the house is filled with smoke and I can't get a hold of Allistor!" Peter's voice was panicked and Arthur could hear that horrible beeping of the house fire alarm.

"You set the house on fire?" Arthur couldn't keep the anger out of his voice, though he knew Peter was already scared and didn't know what to do, "I just left a minute or two ago!"

"We didn't! We didn't!" Peter said, his voice high pitched and tight. "We don't know what happened! Emil called the fire department!"

Arthur knew Allistor's work was too far away to make it worth the while to go deal with the problem, but Arthur's team was catching up to the North! His team could handle things here without him micromanaging, but they were so close to a breakthrough! He needed to be here!

"I'll be there in a minute." Arthur growled and hung up. What on earth could those kids get into in such a short time span? "Vash! Listen, I just got a call from Peter, I've got to go."

Vash looked up sharply, "Is Lili okay?"

Arthur sighed, it was probably best if Vash just came with him and took Lili home. "I'm sure she is, it's just that my fire alarm went off and they don't know why."

"I'll meet you there." Vash said and got into his car without another word. Arthur shook his head and got into his own car.

What on earth did those kids do? As Arthur drove, his anger melted away and turned to fear. Did they all get out of the house okay? Turning the corner to his road felt like the hardest thing he had ever done. Part of him didn't want to see the house standing there in flames. He didn't want to see Peter or Lili or Emil trapped inside. The fire alarm went off, the house was on fire, where the kids out? Why had he gotten mad?

"Sir, we found that there was something burning on the stove in the kitchen." The fire chief said calmly, "The dish towels next to the stove caught on fire and set off the alarm, nothing else was damaged, but I'd suggest letting you house air out for a bit."

Arthur stared at the chief. The bacon. He had left the bacon on the stove. "Thank you." Arthur said, feeling numb, "Thank you so much."

Vash had already left to take Lili home and Peter and Emil stood a little distance away watching him. Arthur turned to look at them slowly. They stared back, Peter fearfully, and Emil with a totally blank expression.

"Peter, I owe you an apology." Arthur said, walking over to the boys, "I yelled at you, and it wasn't your fault. Good job contacting the fire department and getting everyone out of the house."

Peter looked like he was about to cry, but he forced a smile and nodded, then looked at the ground, "Sorry to call you from work."

Arthur just shook his head, "No, I'm sorry I got so mad."

Arthur sighed with relief and smiled at the boys. Then he stepped forward and pulled Peter into a hug. Peter hugged him back fiercely and for a moment they just stood there. Arthur looked up at Emil and pulled him into the hug as well. Peter broke and started to cry.

Arthur just hugged them, "I'm sorry. I'm just glad you're okay. You did good."

 **So, quite a bit happened this chapter, I felt like I have been neglecting UK, so he got a much longer section than Icy. Things are starting to look bad for the North XD I've already started chapter 6, just not done yet!**

 **Please reveiw! Thanks to everyone who has! Your support means so much to me! 3**


	6. Chapter 6

Emil felt violated. The enemy had hugged him. The enemy had been concerned about him. The enemy was so sappy.

Arthur had to go back to work, but first he dropped Emil and Peter off at a restaurant next to the local library and gave them some money. Peter and Emil sat at the booth and waited for their lunch to arrive. Peter was talking nonstop about something, Emil wasn't really paying attention. After Peter had finished crying, he had bounced back to his normal, bubbly, annoying self.

Emil stared out the window and glanced down to check his phone. He had texted Lukas to come pick him up, the North should be done by now. Then again, if Arthur was called in, it was very possible that the North had been found. Emil didn't want to think about that, but he hadn't heard from Lukas or any of the others yet and Arthur hadn't mentioned what he was called in for. It was unsettling.

Their food came and they began to eat. Amazingly, Peter continued to talk at full speed. Emil ate quickly, checking his phone every few seconds, and watching the parking lot entrance through the window. No news. They paid and walked over to the library. For the first time since Emil had arrived at Peter's house, Peter was quiet, the librarian seemed to know about Peter and his non-stop mouth and shot him evil looks every time he seemed to want to start talking.

They both sat down at computers and Emil logged into his email. There. An email from Mathias.

 _Yo! Emil! We just got back and I thought I'd email you since you probably wanted to hear from us. It took about two and a half hours, but we did good. Found the stuff without a problem. Lukas is still all weird and is pacing again, I'm tempted to put a chair in his way. Does he always pace in that exact same spot? He's going to were a hole in the carpet! Anyway, me and Berwald got a a game of poker going right now. Dinner's at Tino's tonight. Lukas says he will come get you at two._

 _Peace out! Mathias_

Emil reread the email, marveling at the lack of grammar skills. It sounded upbeat and like everything went fine. He deleted the email then deleted his trash box, it was a weird habit of his to always have his trash empty and to remove all emails that would clutter up his inbox. Mathias would nerve be so stupid as to actually talk about the North in an email, so Emil never worried about the correspondence between any of them to be clear enough to lead someone to them. They were always vague and could be anything really.

The email was sent at one thirty. It was now one forty. Emil texted all four of the North, telling them he was at the library and wasn't sure how much more of Peter he could take.

Just before Emil was about to delete the browser's history, another email popped up in his box.

 _Hi again. Lukas is on his way. We got your text. It seems something has happened, I'm going to be checking up on it. Dinner was canceled._

 _Mathias._

Emil didn't need to know that Mathias meant something had happen with the police. Why were they only hearing about it now? Mathias sounded almost scared. Emil was scared. He finished removing his history and said good bye to Peter before walking out of the library and sitting on the curb to wait for Lukas.

Lukas refused to tell him anything on the drive home. At home, Mathias was drinking in the kitchen and Berwald was in the living room on his laptop. Tino sat beside him with a book, but wasn't reading.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Emil said the moment the door closed behind him.

"The Vargas showed up at the storage unit an hour after we left, and they called the cops." Lukas said and walked over to his normal pacing spot, "A friend called Mathias and told him."

"What?" Emil said, feeling even more scared than he had on the drive over, "What do they know?"

Mathias looked up with a smile, he wasn't drunk yet and spoke with a bitter tone, "I don't know, Gil will call again when he gets off. It looks like they are dusting everything and they know pretty much everything there is to know about Berwald's van, except the license plate."

"If they are smart, they will have it soon." Berwald said, his voice low and emotionless. He didn't even look up from his computer. Lukas nodded in agreement and started to pace.

The temperature of the room seemed to drop and the five sat in silence for another half hour. All of them jumped when Mathias's phone rang and all looked at it.

"Hello?" Mathias said.

"Put it on speaker!" Lukas snapped and Mathias shook his head, standing to leave.

Berwald stood too, stepping forward to blocked Mathias's escape, Emil lunged for the phone.

"Seriously guys?" Mathias sighed, "Do we really have to do this now?" Mathias danced backwards with a surprising agility, right into Lukas. Lukas tried to get the phone, but Mathias held it up, and kept it out of reach. He held Lukas at bay and backed toward the back door.

"Sorry Gil, hang on a minute!" Mathias shouted at the mouth piece and turned for the back door. Lukas and Emil both surged after him and ended up pushing each other away. Tino jumped forward, making his way around Mathias with an unheard of speed, and plastered himself over the door. Mathias glowered at him and tried to pry the smaller man free with one arm while keeping the phone out of Lukas's reach with the other. Berwald walked over slowly and reached up, the taller man got the phone pretty easily. He turned on the speaker and placed it in the middle of the kitchen table.

"Guys! This is ridiculous!" Mathias complained.

They ignored him and all stood hunched over the table.

"Aren't we being a little immature about this?" Mathias said again and walked over. The phone was silent.

They all looked at Mathias. He had hung up.

"Call him back." Lukas said, pointing at the silent phone.

Mathias rolled his eyes and snatched the phone from the table. He spun and dashed for the door, only to be yanked back. Berwald had Mathias by the collar and dragged him back and up to be at eye level.

"Call back here." Berwald said. His tone left no room for negotiation, but still the two stood stark still glaring at each other.

The phone rang again.

It rang four times before Berwald released Mathias and Mathias hit the answer button.

"Hello?" Mathias turned the speaker up and placed the phone in the middle of the table.

"Yo, what happened there? It sounded like you got in a fight or something?"

Mathias glanced around at the four faces watching him intently, "Yeah, it was something like that. Anyway, what's up, Gil?"

"Listen, I really need your help right now." The voice on the other end of the phone sounded stressed and Mathias frowned, "If you do nothing else for me, now is when I need you?"

"I think I'm the one that needs you! What happened at the-" Mathias was cut short by a sharp bark of laughter.

"You need me? No, man! I need you to help me find Ludwig's dogs! I lost them!" The laugh was nervous and he sounded all but panicked, "He's going to kill me if he found out I lost them!" For a moment Gil paused then that bark of a laugh came again, "What? No! You don't even know what they look like Alfred! You'd be useless! Besides, you have a video game challenge you'd be missing with Kiku! Nah, it's okay. Anyway, Mathias, I need you!"

"What? Gilbert? Alfred's there? What?" Mathias snapped, "You lost his dogs? What about the Nor-"

"No! Dogs! I need your help finding those stupid dogs!" Gilbert snapped back, "If Ludwig kills me for loosing them, it's on your head!"

Mathias was silent for a moment then he chuckled, "Which one did you loose?"

"All three."

"You're kidding! How did you manage that?" Mathias laughed, a genuine laugh and he shook his head, smiling at the four concerned faces, "Where?"

"The park, I'll meet you there in ten minutes, okay?" Gilbert said, "NO! Alfred you can't come! Mathias, you're a life saver, you should bring that friend of yours who is good with dogs, maybe he can help too."

"Sure, see you in ten!" Mathias hung up and sighed with apparent releif.

"Dogs?" Tino said doubtfully.

"Dogs! Gil's a genius!" Mathias laughed again, "He couldn't talk were he was and didn't want to talk on the phone, so he arranged for a place to talk and he even invited me to bring you, Tino!"

"Me?" Tino smiled, "Really? I'm the dog guy?"

Mathias shrugged, "You have a dog, so I guess so. Hey, Emil should come too! I bet it was Gilbert who you saw talking to your informant at school. If so, we can totally use him!"

Emil sighed and slouched in his chair, while Tino beamed.

Who on earth was Gilbert? Why did Mathias seem to think it was a good thing if this Gilbert guy was the police officer from school? How was that good, again?

Arthur and Kiku sat back to back, surrounded by computer screens, all showing street views of traffic. So far, no luck. A black van had yet to enter or exit the area. Th video cameras were all pretty clear, but a few kept flickering in and out, still it wasn't enough time for a van to have slipped by. Arthur was unsurprised that no prints had been found so far in the storage unit, but maybe the North's black van had been caught on camera. That meant a license plate, that meant finding out who owned the car, that meant finding the North. Arthur was giddy. This was it! His big break! They just had to find the van.

He suspected that most of the cameras would be tampered with to never show the car, since cameras in the past always had some evidence of editing. However, there was a chance that since the North didn't expect this crime to be found out so quickly they would have left the cameras alone. If the police never knew when the crime took place, they could go through cameras all they wanted and looked for black vans it would be useless. Lots of people had black vans and drove around in them, not many of them were criminals; even fewer were even the same class of criminal as the North. The simple fact of knowing when the crime took place gave the police some assurance that any of the black vans caught on camera before and after the crime have a good chance of being related to the North.

Arthur mentally thanked the Vargas family for sending the twins to get that refrigerator. As great as the North's set up was, they didn't seem to factor in friends in need of refrigerators! Arthur chuckled to himself with glee. The theft might have been left unknown for months, just like the others, if dear Lovino and Feliciano Vargas hadn't showed up to be good Samaritans! They might have helped solve this case! But Arthur was getting ahead of himself again, first they had to actually find the van.

 **Six! Things still are looking pretty bad for the North, but I promise this story won't end that easily!**

 **Special thanks to all of my reviewers! Thank you! I love you all! Please keep it up! I love the feed back!**


	7. Chapter 7

"What kind of dogs?" Tino asked as they walked through the deserted park toward the picnic tables.

"I don't know. They're Ludwig's dogs." Mathias said and flashed Emil a smile. "You used to want a dog, you begged and begged, and got a puffin." Emil glowered at him, "What? Why do you look so mad?"

"Who is Gilbert?" Emil asked slowly, "Is he that guy who hired us for the art museum? That job paid too little."

"Yep, that's him." Mathias said, pocketing his phone, "Gilbert and Ludwig, or should I say, East and West, run a black market line and they had found some good buyers for those paintings we took."

"They paid too little." Tino agreed with a nod, "But I've worked with them before."

"When?" Emil asked, annoyed that Tino was agreeing with him and being on Mathias's side at the same time.

Tino smiled, "As Santa, I work closely with the black market. Don't forget that I'm only Finland half the time."

Emil shook his head, he had forgotten. Since Tino was unknown to the criminal network as Finland, he kept up his work as Santa. The solo thief who would and could get anything for the right prince. It was funny that Tino said that he "could get any to anywhere Santa Clause delivered presents to" and that his original allyous in the crime world before joining the North was "Santa."It was ironically funny, but funny none the less. Before he join the North, he was Santa, and was still Santa, just less often.

"East is a friend," Mathias said, "Besides they gave us a lot of free publicity and got the word of the North spread a little further through the crime networks."

"We don't really need publicity, the police do enough of that." Emil said sullenly. Every part of this felt wrong to him. Being friends with detectives who were really part of the black market was just wrong. If this guy was East, but really a detective, but ran a black market line, whose side was he on? Was he with the enemy? He lead Arthur to Vlad, then again, he called Mathias and told him that police had found the North's latest crime early. Mathias trusted him, but that wasn't enough for Emil. Tino didn't seem concerned, but then again, Tino had worked with East and West before. Emil trusted Tino, but that was a bit shaky now that he saw Tino trusted Mathias. Emil supposed he might trust Mathias more if he wasn't trying to get free drinks off of people half the time and being obnoxious the other half. Mathias was very good at what he did, he survived. but that didn't mean he had good taste in friends. Emil mentally took that back, Mathias did have good taste in friends. He was friends with Lukas, Tino, and Berwald, after all. Maybe this East guy was a friend. Was this guy East, the black market trader, or was he Gilbert, the detective?

The East guy looked like a normal guy. The most striking thing about him was that he was albino, but apart from that he looked painfully ordinary.

"Think fast!" Gilbert threw something at Mathias as they approached and Mathias caught it easily, "You can start thanking me now." The guys said with a smirk.

"What's this?" Mathias looked at the plastic bag and it's continence.

"The camera chip with the footage of your guys's cars." Gilbert smirked again and looked to Emil and Tino, "You guys totally owe me! Oh! Hey is Santa part of the North?"

Tino smiled and shrugged, "I'm the dog guy?"

Gilbert shrugged.

Mathias stared at the little chip for a moment and started laughing, lunging forward to hug Gilbert. They hugged and laughed and broke apart.

"Jeez Gil! I really do owe you!" Mathias laughed, and shook his head in disbelief, "How'd you do it?"

"Alfred and I were supposed to go around to all of the street cameras and pick up the chips to be copied, I managed to check most of them before Alfred copied them and I found this one pretty quickly, the rest were too out of the way to bother with." He said with a shrug, "There is one other camera that caught the cars, but it's the wrong angle to see the plate, so I left it be."

Mathias grinned like a mad man and shoved the chip into his pocket, "I'll get it back to you tomorrow, we'll edit it tonight and they'll never know it was gone!"

Gilbert nodded glanced at Emil again, "Sorry about showing them to Vlad."

Emil sneered and looked away, as if an apology helped.

"I didn't realize he knew so much, but I knew he wouldn't blow my cover, so I thought he was safest." Gilbert said apologetically, "I thought this might make up for it."

"It does!" Mathias said, "Don't worry about the Vampire, we'll deal with him, and we might even end up using him to our advantage. What about that Arthur guy?"

"He's sharp, his team is good, not as good as mine, but good." Gilbert said, "I plan on sitting back for a while and watching them dance, my team really wants the North case and if I help Arthur out too much, we'll never get it."

Mathias frowned, "What are you going to do if you get the case?"

Gilbert grinned evilly, "Catch you, of course."

Emil watched the color drain out of Mathias's face, while his own face heated up with anger. Who did this guy think he was? Was he threatening them? Tino's eyes were wide and Gilbert just stood there looking smug.

"Alternatively, I have a bit of a grudge against Rodrich and Elizabeta, I thought they would make a pretty good North." Gilbert said, that evil smile still plastered on his face.

Mathias choked, "What?"

"Rodrich. He's been taking customers from me and Lud for the past few months. Setting him up as the North is a pretty nice way of eliminating competition." Gilbert suddenly cracked and started laughing, "You should see your faces right now! It's priceless! You don't seriously think I'd turn you in do you?!"

Mathias let out a sigh of relief, "Don't scare me like that!"

Gilbert wiped his eyes, clutching his stomach, "Priceless! I should have filmed it!" He straightened, shaking his head and chuckling, "Sorry, I couldn't help myself!"

"I could turn you in much easier than you could actually find evidence against us as the North!" Mathias said, "East and West are just as wanted as the North are!"

"No need to threaten me!" Gilbert said smiling, "I'm not going to catch you, but I will catch the North. I just haven't decided if Rodrich should be the North or Jan's groupies."

Mathias shook his head and smiled again, "Don't do that! I thought I was going to have a heart attack!"

"You looked like it too!" Gilbert chuckled.

Tino and Emil exchanged a look. It was clear that Tino was just as nervous about Gilbert now. If Gilbert really was joking, they were fine, but what if he wasn't? Whose side was he on? Emil's head hurt. He wanted to trust Mathias and Gilbert.

"Well, hows Ludwig?" Mathias said with a sigh.

"Fine, up tight as ever." Gilbert said, "Business is booming for us, we're having a hard time keeping up with it all. He'll be mad to here you guys robbed the Vargas, he's friends with them. Don't know why, they're so white collar. How's things on your end?"

"Fine. We're all rather stressed out." Mathias said, "I still can't find a normal job and Berwald just got laid off. The North needs to be hired again soon, or we're all going to have the bank on our doorsteps rather than the police."

"You should try your hand in the black market." Gilbert said, "It's working for us."

"Nah, theft is what we're good at."

"Shame."

A silence followed. Emil glared at Gilbert.

"Well, thanks again, I'll see you tomorrow." Mathias turned and started to turn away, Tino and Emil started to follow.

"Hey! You're not going to just leave me here are you?" That panicked sound seemed to creep back into Gilbert's voice.

"Huh?" They stopped and looked at him.

"The dogs! I've got to find Ludwig's dogs!"

Tino and Emil looked at Mathias who stared at Gilbert. Mathias grinned.

"You seriously lost Ludwig's dogs?" Mathias laughed, "Seriously? I thought you were just trying to set up a place to talk!"

"I was! But I told you to bring friends so we could catch those wretched things!" Gilbert said, his face going red, "West is gonna to kill me!"

"Jeez East! What were you thinking?" It was Mathias turn to laugh so hard he was crying, Tino started to giggle and Emil scowled at them.

"Please! We've got to find those dogs! He's gonna let my bird out or something if he finds out I lost them again!"

"AGAIN?" Mathias was practically rolling on the ground, "You've lost them before?"

"No! Well, maybe. Mathias! We have to find them!"

"Fine! We'll help you find the dogs!"

On Sunday, Emil woke up at two in the morning. Lukas wasn't pacing. The house was strangely quiet.

He got up and went down stairs to see Lukas and Berwald sitting in the kitchen, fully dressed, and drinking coffee.

"Go back to bed." Lukas said, without looking at him, "It's two."

"It's two." Emil said with a yawn, "What are you doing?"

"Preparing to break the law." Lukas said, "Go back to bed."

Emil looked at Berwald pointedly, "What's going on?"

"We're going to break the law." Berwald said, his tone flat and his face emptier than even Lukas's.

"How are you breaking the law?" Emil asked, moving past them to pour himself a cup of orange juice from the fridge, "The North doesn't have anything on right now." Emil turned to look at the two. They sat, looking at their coffee cups in silence. Both with sat tensely with unreadable expressions. Emil took a sip of his juice and looked at them.

The silence stretched for longer than was comfortable and finally Berwald broke. He stood, looking at Emil with cold eyes, "We're going to start fighting back."

Emil looked at him and frowned. What? That made no sense. Emil looked at Lukas. Lukas scowled.

"We've been very lucky so far." Lukas said, "They don't have Berwald behind bars because of East. Being at the mercy of a black market retailer isn't as appealing to the rest of us as it is to Mathias."

Emil remained silent and looked between his brother and Berwald. Berwald's jaw was clenched and his knuckles grew white as he clutched the coffee cup. That licence plate would have been enough evidence for the police to bring him in for questioning. Gilbert had saved him.

"We are going to set up cameras at Arthur's house and his team's offices." Lukas said. He let his words hang in the air a moment. Any drowsiness Emil still had, was gone. Spy on Arthur and his team? "We are going on the offensive now. We need to know exactly what they know about us. We need to get them off our trail."

Lukas didn't talk much. Him talking this much, this early in the morning was just as unnerving as him pacing. Emil started at him. The North setting up cameras was crossing a line. They were thieves. Somehow, this felt more wrong to Emil than breaking into the bank had. This felt more wrong than anything they had ever done before. Of course, stealing was wrong, but this was another level of wrong.

It was wrong, but Emil didn't argue. He didn't say anything as Berwald and and Lukas finished their coffee and left.

"I'll be back around noon." Lukas said, before he closed the door, "Go back to bed, there is breakfast in the fridge. Practice your violin and finish your homework before you go out anywhere. I'll talk to Mathias and get you out of driving lessons today."

Emil just nodded and watched through the front window as the car pulled away. They were going out to battle the enemy. This was the offensive. This felt wrong.

Emil went back to bed. He didn't sleep, just stared at his white ceiling.

When he got up he heated up his breakfast and ate it.

Upstairs, he laid out his sheet music and started organizing it into piles. He tuned his violin and started to play. He felt like a robot, just going through the motions. He felt numb. Not thinking. Spying was wrong. Stealing was also wrong, but what else were they supposed to do? Berwald was just laid off and his other job of making websites for people was only an occasional income. Mathias seemed incapable of getting hired and lived mostly off of the other four of them. Tino did a lot of solo theft work to keep his cover as "Santa." Being both Finland and Santa didn't seem to put any strain on him, and it certainly kept him financially stable. Lukas worked as a guard at the mall and his meager income kept him and Emil going, but they would be stretched pretty thin without the North's work.

Tino was the best off of the five of them, but only because he was stealing twice as much. Lukas had to support himself and Emil and Mathias ended up eating with them more often than not. Tino loaned money to the others when they needed it, but it was an unspoken agreement to take as little as possible from him.

Emil didn't actually know when Lukas started stealing to get by. He knew that eventually Lukas teamed up with Mathias. They never attempted anything big, just house break ins, but they were able to make a pretty penny and started going for more ambitious goals.

They had been doing a break in and met Berwald waiting for them. Emil hadn't been with them, but from the way Mathias described it, Berwald was sitting quietly in the living room with a gun, reading a book. The moment Lukas and Mathias had realized that he was there, he had calmly put the book down and had the gun to Lukas's back. Mathias said it had been pretty tense there for a few minutes. They had apologized for trying to rob him and stayed for a late dinner. Berwald's security system had let him know that they were on the property, and he had been expecting them since the other break ins around the neighborhood.

Berwald was a tech guy, he had the best security system ever and knew all there was to know about other people's systems. For the weeks after they had tried to rob him, Mathias broke in again and again without bringing Lukas. Mathias tried to find a loophole in Berwald's system and couldn't. Berwald was, naturally, unamused by the nightly visits and even called the police on Mathias. They had a rocky relationship and it had taken a while, but eventually Mathias convinced Berwald that crime paid. Berwald's expertise opened the door for robbing better defended houses and the trio made a pretty good team.

That was the "Viking days," as Mathias jokingly put it. Emil had been aware of Lukas's hobby by then, and had even helped on a few break ins. He wasn't allowed to help with anything major, but he had always felt good about it. There wasn't a house that they wouldn't try to get into, but they didn't always succeed. There were lots of nights when Lukas came back early, saying only that it had been too dangerous to go through with the job.

Mathias always managed to sell the stuff they stole for a good price, probably thanks to Gilbert. At that point, they had been on the outskirts of the crime network. That was when Mathias heard rumor of a guy who could break into anywhere. Santa was a professional thief. Mathias got it in his head, that with Santa on their side, they would be unstoppable. For Lukas and Berwald, the rumor only stirred up some mild curiosity, but for Mathias, it was a huge incentive to getting into the loop of the crime network.

Emil was helping with a break in for a summer home when he first met Tino. He had been with Berwald, turning off the power to the security system when they heard a soft, polite cough from behind them.

They had turned to see Tino smile politely, "Um, hi. You don't live here do you?" Tino had asked, sounding almost apologetic.

"No." Berwald had said, "Neither do you."

"Right, listen, I was here first, I'd appreciate it if you guys went to rob the house next door."

Emil and Berwald had just looked at Tino. Tino had smiled at them. He had grown nervous as the silence stretched.

"No." Berwald had said.

Tino had grown harder somehow. His stance hadn't changed and he still smiled, but he seemed more dangerous. Emil remembered shrinking behind Berwald and wishing Mathias and Lukas would show up.

"I kind of need something inside." Tino said.

"You can have it." Berwald said and turned to continue turning off the power, "Chances are, we need something else."

Tino watched as Emil and Berwald finished and started into the house. Emil glanced back to see Tino checking what the power to the box. If he was impressed by Berwald's handiwork, he didn't show it; just looked it over and started to follow them. Mathias and Lukas had met them inside, already looking for things of value.

"There's a guy here to rob the house!" Emil had told them.

Mathias had laughed, "Apart from us?"

"Yes!"

"Oh."

Tino entered and flashed the four of them a smile before heading upstairs.

Mathias shrugged, "Whatever. Leave him be."

After that first time, they ran into Santa a lot. His target houses tended to line up with theirs' and Mathias decided to be more active in recruiting Tino. He was invited to accompany them on their jobs, but he declined. An invitation to dinner and a challenge at Mario Carts, he accepted. Tino became their friend warily and eventually it was almost as if they had always known each other. Still, he refused to join them in crime. Tino was their friend, but Santa was not.

The North's first big break in, at a office building, was a challenge and Emil hadn't been allowed to go. That was the first time they left their card and it was the first time that they cleaned everything. Denmark, Sweden, and Norway went on to do two more major thefts, leaving their card, before Santa agreed to become Finland. It was a decision based on the challenging jobs that the North accepted and the friendship that had formed between Tino and the North. For the North, Berwald's talents had made better secured houses accessible, but Tino's talents made nothing inaccessible. It had worked beautifully.

Emil remembered stealing the painting from the art museum. It had been an open house, so there were tons of people there. It had been child's play to slip into the area being redecorated and slip out with the crowd. They had left their card in the empty picture frame and had gone ice skating afterwards. As Iceland, he didn't have a big part in the whole scheme of things. It was his job to wipe everything down, moments after someone else had touched it. With Tino breaking them in, Berwald dealing with the security cameras, Lukas and Mathias collecting the goods, and Emil cleaning everything, they were very fast and efficient.

The enemy, Arthur, threatened to take them away. Put them behind bars. It was wrong to spy on Arthur, but they were protecting themselves.

Emil stared at his sheet music. He wasn't as good as Lukas was at violin, but he wasn't bad. The music was cheery and up beat. He felt numb. They were lowering themselves to spying, but what else were they supposed to do?

Emil didn't know how to feel. Mad? Angry? Sad? This was just they way things had to go. They couldn't be caught by the police. They had to know what the police knew about them. They were on the offensive. This was wrong. Stealing was also wrong. They had to eat.

It had been an emotional last few days. The annoyance of going to Peter's house, the fear of Vlad talking with the police, the tension of Lukas's pacing, the anger of going to meet Gilbert, and now this conflicting turmoil on how he ought to feel about watching Arthur. The numbness was better than this. Emil didn't want to feel any more, he wanted some sort of sanity to return to his life.

Emil started at the beginning of the song again, pulling his bow slowly and slurring all of the notes together. It made the cheery tune sound darker and disjointed. He heard the door downstairs open and close. He ignored it and continued to play.

"If you're going to saw away on that poor instrument like that, you might as well stop!"

Emil froze. That wasn't Lukas's voice. Mathias? What was Mathias doing here? Panic raced through his veins. Something had gone wrong again, Berwald and Lukas had been arrested.

Emil raced down stairs, "What happened?"

"Huh?" Mathias turned and looked at Emil in surprise, "What?"

Mathias was totally relaxed. He was making a sandwich. His eyes grew wide as he looked at Emil, "Did something happen?"

"No. Sorry." Emil was embarrassed, but he hid it and sat down at the table, "Make me one too please."

"Okay." Mathias said, "Good news though! Get your skates and we'll eat on the way!"

"What?"

"We're going to meet everyone at the ice ring, I reserved it last week and we're going to play some hockey!" Mathias said, grinning over his shoulder at Emil.

Hockey? Now? While the police were breathing down their necks? Emil smiled, it sounded great.

"Other good news! The North got another job!"

Oh.

 **Seven! Done! People keep saying they can't wait to see the North and Arthur's team in action, it hasn't really happened yet, but it will within the next two chapters! The North is fighting back! I hope you like it! I was pretty nervous about posting this chapter, but here it is!**

 **Shout out to ListenerofShadows, thanks for your reviews! You're awesome!**


	8. Chapter 8

Arthur worked for a private detective agency. That meant that individuals paid the agency to work with the police on a case and the agency assigned the cases out to their teams. Arthur's team only had the North case, though it wasn't uncommon for teams to cover multiple cases at once.

When Arthur was called into the boss's office on Tuesday, he was ready to argue about the reassignment of the North case. Instead, he was handed a file for the assignment of another case.

He trailed back to his team's office unit and flipped through the new files. It looked like a simple case. Nothing that would take up as much time as the North case was. This also looked like a good chance to cool things between his team members. On Monday, Vash had returned to work with his normal demeanor and was treating Alfred civilly, then Gilbert and Vash started butting heads. Arthur was glad that it hadn't become serious yet, but putting Alfred and Gilbert on this case would give them something to worry about rather than waiting around for Kiku and Vash to finish processing security camera footage.

"Alfred, could you and Gilbert look through this for me?" Arthur asked, handing Alfred the new file as he entered.

"What is it?" Alfred asked, looking up and spinning his chair around to look at Arthur and take the file.

"New case assignment, it doesn't look like a big deal." Arthur said and started over to his own desk, "I thought you and Gilbert could handle it."

Out of the corner of his eye, Arthur saw Gilbert and Alfred bristle. Wrong words. Oops.

"Are you saying we can't handle the North case?" Gilbert asked, his tone nonchalant, but the challenge clear. Arthur hadn't actually seen Gilbert do anything useful for the last few days, so he didn't mind upsetting him, but by how tense Alfred had gotten, the sentiment was mutual.

"No, I'm saying that this case would be a good break for you guys and would be finished up faster if we weren't all trying to butt in and micro manage." Arthur said carefully, but he tried to sound like he was giving them a break.

"The North case is top priority, wouldn't it be better if we all focused on it?" Alfred asked, he wasn't questioning Arthur, he just sounded disappointed.

Arthur didn't see how they saw this as a down grade, but clearly they saw this as punishment of some sort, "Look, if we can finish up this case quickly and get it out of the way, then all of our resources are back to the North case."

"Right." Alfred said he looked unhappy, but he turned back to his desk without further comment.

Arthur shook his head and glanced over to Kiku and Vash. Although they hadn't moved, it was clear they had been listening with interest. What was it with his team?

Arthur turned to his own work. The person who had hired the agency for the North case was demanding an interview with him. They wanted to know how things were going and Arthur couldn't blame them for that. At the same time, he really didn't want to talk to them. Telling them that they were no closer to recovering the priceless family relic would not make them happy.

"Arthur?"

Arthur looked up in surprise to see another one of the team leaders in the doorway, "Ivan? Can I help you?"

The big man smiled and tugged at his scarf to loosen it, "Well, there is a young man out front that wants to talk to Mr. Gilbert and yourself."

"Oh, thank you!" Arthur got up and motioned for Gilbert to follow him.

"Might I come with you?" Ivan asked politely, "I think he might be giving you guys a tip."

"I don't mind if you come, " Arthur said with a shrug, his mind racing. Who would be willing to give them a tip to the North? Who would even know something useful?

"Why is a tip on the North case of interest to you?" Gilbert asked, his usual carefree demeanor replaced with a wariness he wasn't even trying to hid. Arthur noticed a look pass between the albino and the other team leader. Apparently they weren't friends.

"What does it matter to you?" Ivan replied, his tone never changing, "I think he might know something about my case as well."

"He's our asset." Gilbert said coldly.

"He's Mr. Kirkland's asset." Ivan didn't even look at Gilbert, "You aren't even on his team."

Gilbert made a soft growling noise, but stopped as they came to the front office. Sitting in one of the waiting chairs was a familiar high schooler.

"Vladimir" Gilbert almost choked.

The teen shot out of his seat and turned quickly at the sound of his name and looked at the two detectives approaching him, his face taunt and his stance tense. The kid was on edge and reminded Arthur of a trapped wild animal, searching desperately for a way to escape. He was dressed well, but pale and stood a little hunched over, like he was cold or wet.

"Hello, Vlad." Arthur said pleasantly, "How can we help you?"

"How much will you pay me to tell you who Iceland is?" Vlad spoke quickly and quietly, his words tumbling out of his mouth and running into each other so that he was barley understandable.

Arthur felt his pulse quicken with hope. Still, he had no way of verifying this kid's information, even with learning the names of the North, they couldn't be sure that those were really what the North went by, "Can you prove that this person really is part of the North?"

Vlad's eyes darted back and forth between Gilbert and Arthur, he looked ready to turn and run, "Yes. How much is it to you?"

Quickly, Arthur pulled his wallet out of his pocket and looked through it, he didn't have much, "I can give you thirty now and fifty later."

"I need it all now."

"How do you know this guy is Iceland?" Gilbert asked.

Vlad grew paler and he glared at Gilbert.

"Gil, how much do you have on you?" Arthur snapped, pulling out his thirty and offering it to Vlad.

Gilbert frowned and pulled out his own wallet, "Forty."

"Too little!" Vlad looked at Arthur's thirty like it was poison and made no move to take it.

"You're in your last year of high school, right?" Ivan said from behind Vlad.

Arthur looked at Ivan in surprise, how did he get behind Vlad? Gilbert glowered and Vlad spun and backed away from Ivan, "You stay away from me!"

"You're a senior, right?" Ivan said smiling, "You are working with the black market, aren't you?"

Vlad backed right into Gilbert and started shaking his head. His eyes grew wider and his clenched his fists in front of him like he expected to have to defend himself.

"Ivan, stop it!" Gilbert snapped, pushing Vlad behind him with a gentleness Arthur wasn't aware he possessed, "You're terrifying him!"

"I just want to ask him about-"

Vlad yelped and darted around Ivan and bolted for the door. He dashed down the street with Arthur and Gilbert racing after him, but the younger man pulled a head and away before they had even run a block.

Arthur shook his head and started back inside, panting. Gilbert looked about to explode and Arthur couldn't blame him. Arthur felt about to explode.

Ivan was standing where they had left him, he turned and smiled as they entered, "Sorry about that."

"Ivan! That could have helped close this case!" Arthur growled, "Why did you have to shake him up more than he was?"

"Sorry." Ivan said, "I wanted to see if he was affiliated with-"

"I don't care! That was our tip! Not your's!" Arthur glanced at the ladies at the front desk and lowered his voice, "Loosing him is not appreciated!"

Ivan shrugged.

Arthur wanted to strangle him. Gilbert stood behind Arthur, clearly feeling the same way.

"Hey, he left his jacket." Gilbert said, holding up a reddish trench coat from the chair Vlad had been sitting in before they entered, "We can take this to the school and-"

"Check the pockets." Ivan said shortly, his tone colder when addressing Gilbert.

"Wait! Anything we find in his pocket is going to MY case!" Arthur snapped, snatching the jacket from Gilbert.

"Unless it pertains to my case." Ivan sounded so agreeable, he even looked agreeable! Why was he being so difficult?

Arthur shoved his hands into the jacket's pockets and to his surprise, he found them to be full of stuff. He walked over to the little coffee table and started laying the items out: two folded up pieces of paper, five pennies, four quarters, three gum wrappers, two pieces of butterscotch candy, a business card for the mall near the detective agency, a rolled up set of ear bud head phones, a pen knife, and a black blue tooth-looking earpiece.

The three detectives looked at the junk with disappointment.

Ivan unfolded the two pieces of paper. They were blank.

"You can have it." Ivan said, dropping the paper on the table and turning to leave.

"Thanks." Arthur tried to keep the sarcasm out of his voice and failed.

Ivan didn't look back.

Arthur and Gilbert collected all of the little trinkets and moved them to their team's office.

"What happened?" Alfred asked.

"Ivan-Mr- Guines messed things up." Gilbert snapped and plopped down is his usual seat next to Alfred.

"Big surprise." Alfred said and Gilbert nodded. Apparently Ivan had more of a hate club than a fan club.

Silence returned and everyone went back to their work.

Arthur looked over Vlad's stuff. It was pretty unimpressive, even for a high schooler. Then again, maybe it was significant? What was this business card? Why would a high schooler be carrying around a business card for the mall? How about the earpiece?

"Um, Vash?" Arthur called, "Could you hook this blue tooth up to a speaker or something so we can hear if someone calls?"

Vash walked over to Arthur's desk and looked at it, "This isn't a blue tooth, it's a radio."

"What?"

"It's like the military radio earpieces, except someone went to the trouble to make it look like a blue tooth." Vash said, "I can hook it up to a speaker, and we should be able to talk back."

"Would we be able to track any waves coming in?" Arthur asked as Vash took the ear piece back to his own desk.

"We should."

Arthur sat back in his chair and sighed, why did Ivan have to scare the poor kid like that? Why did it matter if he was a senior in high school? Peter was a sophomore.

Arthur looked back at the other junk. Mall. Hmmmm. Butterscotch. Mmmmmm.

 _ **"llo? Hello? Is anyone else on yet?"**_

Everyone in the room jumped and looked around.

"Sorry, that was a bit loud." Vash said.

"Wait! That was the earpiece?" Alfred yelped, jumping up and hurrying over to Vash's desk. Vash had opened the earpiece's case and attached the innards to a control board of some sort.

"Yes." Vash readjusted the sound just as the voice spoke again.

 _ **"Hello? Can you guys hear me?"**_ The voice coming out of the earpiece was electric and fuzzy. It sounded mechanical, like there was voice distorter or something. Arthur wasn't even sure if it was male or female.

"Can you figure out where it's coming from?" Arthur asked, "Can we reply and ask them about Vlad?"

"Hang on! Let me set it up!" Vash snapped, "I did't except anyone to actually talk, it seems to have a blocked radio wave, so anyone talking here has special access."

"Can we use it?"

"Well of course! We have the earpiece!" Vash frowned at his work. His control board was flashing little lights at him and Arthur wished he knew that all of those little lights were trying to say.

"Can-" Arthur started, only to be interrupted by another voice.

 _ **"Yeah, I can hear you."**_

 _ **"Just you? Where is everyone else?"**_

Like the first, the second voice was indistinguishable, but different. Arthur stood and move behind Vash to watch what he was doing. Arthur knew nothing about electronics, but it didn't take a guenuis to figure out that Vash was trying to get them able to reply.

 _ **"I'm here too."**_

 _ **"Three out of five. How long do you think it will take for those slow pokes to show up?"**_

A steady green light glowed to life on Vash's controller, "There, we can reply."

 _ **"Sweden should be on shortly."**_

Arthur froze. Sweden. Sweden. The North's Sweden? What? Were they listening in to a conversation between the North? What were the chances of that?

"Don't reply!" Arthur snapped, "Just listen!"

 _ **"What about Denmark?"**_

 _ **"I thought he was with you."**_

 _ **"No, Iceland and I are here."**_

If this was the North, then how did Vlad get a hold of it? He had said he would be able to prove who Iceland was. Apparently he was telling the truth. No, this can't be right. What were the chances of Vlad having it? Well, clearly he did have it.

 _ **"Sweden here."**_

 _ **"Is Denmark with you?"**_

 _ **"No."**_

The names were right. Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland. So, which one was Norway and who was the fifth voice? This couldn't be right. What were the chances?

The whole room was quiet and still, everyone was aware of the weight of this conversion really being from the North.

 _ **"Can we continue without him then?"**_

 _ **"No."**_

Arthur's head hurt. Was this a dream? He sure hopped not.

 _ **"Wait, he just rode up to my driveway."**_

 _ **"Why would he go to you, Sweden?"**_

 _ **"I will be right back."**_

Arthur nudged Vash, "Are you recording this?"

"Of course."

Just then there was a crack, the voices fuzzed and turned to static. Vash's hands moved like lightening crossed the controls, the line went dead. Vash cursed quietly and jammed another wire into his control.

 _ **"What are you saying, Denmark?"**_

The room gave a collective sigh of relief as the mechanical voices returned.

 ** _"Look, I'm sorry! I thought it would be funny and he must have gotten it off of me!"_**

 ** _"Are you sure you didn't just loose it?"_**

 ** _"I'm looked everywhere!"_**

 ** _"Awe, Denmark! Those were expensive!"_**

 ** _"I'm sorry okay! Sweden has extra!"_**

 ** _"Sweden isn't the one who paid for them, is he?"_**

 ** _"I'm sorry Finny! It was an accident!"_**

 ** _"Finland! Denmark! Please!"_**

 ** _"Sorry."_**

 ** _"Sorry."_**

Finland! The fifth member of the North! Arthur smiled, this was too good to be true, but apparently it was.

 _ **"Denmark, please start from the beginning."**_

There was a sigh, _**"Okay, I saw the Vamp enter a bar I was going to and I thought I'd steer clear of him since that incident with Iceland."**_

Arthur frowned, was Vlad the Vamp? Why was a high schooler at a bar? Arthur would have to find out about Vladimir's parents and let them know. He would be furious if he caught Peter drinking underage.

 ** _"Eventually, I got bored and went in. The guy was already plastered, so I thought it would be funny to hang out with him. It wasn't like he was going to remember anything."_**

 _ **"You idiot."**_

 _ **"Clearly he was sober enough to have gotten the radio off of you."**_

 _ **"I was set up!"**_

Apparently the North had other enemies apart from the police. Arthur couldn't help but smile; after all of the pain the North had put him and his team through, they deserved all the enemies life could hand them.

 _ **"I'm not an idi-"**_

 _ **"Put Sweden on."**_

 _ **"Sweden here."**_

 _ **"Can you set up that imbecile with another head set?"**_

 _ **"Yes."**_

 _ **"Thanks."**_

 _ **"Five minutes."**_

 _ **"Okay. Turn the speaker up on the one you have so you can both hear us, we need to finish up with this meeting before Iceland has to go."**_

 _ **"Right."**_

There was a shuffling sound.

 _ **"Are you good?"**_

 _ **"Yep! We can hear you!"**_

 _ **"Okay, are we still all good to do the new job tomorrow?"**_

 _ **"Um, about that. . . ."**_

 _ **"What?"**_

 _ **"I sort of have another job on Wednesday. Sorry!"**_

 _ **"It's okay, Finland."**_

 _ **"I'm busy Wednesday too."**_

 _ **"It would be tough without both Icy and Finny."**_

 _ **"Could we go for Thursday?"**_

 _ **"Thursday works for me."**_

 _ **"Me too."**_

 _ **"Yes."**_

 _ **"Denmark?"**_

 _ **"What?"**_

 _ **"Does Thursday work for you?"**_

 _ **"Oh! Yeah! Thursday's cool!"**_

 _ **"Sweden?"**_

 _ **"Yes?"**_

 _ **"Just hit him for me."**_

 _ **"Hey! No! What did I do?"**_

 _ **"You exist. That's enough for me."**_

 _ **"Awe! Norway! You can't mean that!"**_

 _ **"He does."**_

 _ **"Iceland! Don't take sides!"**_

 _ **"All he does is complain about you."**_

 _ **"Shut up! Why aren't you two my friends anymore? Finny is my friend right?"**_

 _ **"Um, sure?"**_

 _ **"Finland! That's not a question! Sweden? You like me, right?"**_

There was a silence. Arthur checked the earpiece, the light still glowed. Vash wiggled something and the silence remained.

 _ **"Sweden?"**_

The silence returned and Arthur glanced at Vash, who shrugged, "They're not talking."

 _ **"Give it up Denmark. Thursday it is then. Sweden will get another head set for Denmark and we will continue according to plan."**_

 _ **"Don't just ignore the problem! Answer me!"**_

 _ **"Finland, do you want to start out early on Thursday or-"**_

 _ **"Don't ignore me!"**_

 _ **"If you guys come at the normal time, then I can have everything set up."**_

 _ **"Good, do you want Sweden with you?"**_

 _ **"Nah, it okay, I can handle it."**_

 _ **"Guys! I'm still here!"**_

 _ **"Denmark! Stop yelling!"**_

 _ **"Don't tell me what to do Icy!"**_

 _ **"I'm Iceland, thank you very much!"**_

 _ **"Ice! Den! Stop it!"**_

 _ **"But, Norway-"**_

 _ **"Stop."**_

 _ **"He started it!"**_

 _ **"Can we focus please?"**_

 _ **"Finland! Stay out of this!"**_

 _ **"Don't yell at Finland."**_

 _ **"Shut up Sweden!"**_

There was a crash, followed by silence.

"Vash? Can you track were the other waves are coming from?" Arthur asked, he spoke softly even though he knew the North couldn't hear him; it just seemed right to be quiet.

Vash shook his head, "I'm trying." He was messing with a computer and judging by his expression, things weren't going well.

 _ **"Sweden?"**_

 _ **"I'll go with Finland Thursday."**_

 _ **"What happened to Denmark?"**_

 _ **"He is on the floor."**_

 _ **"I'm very sorry if he stains the carpet."**_

 _ **"Norway! Don't say things like that!"**_

 _ **"He won't."**_

 _ **"You guys are so creepy!"**_

 _ **"Iceland don't-"**_

 _ **"He just signed off."**_

 _ **"I can do Thursday alone!"**_

 _ **"I'll go with you."**_

 _ **"No! No! It's fine!"**_

 _ **"Finland, I will go with you."**_

 _ **"No! I'm good!"**_

 _ **"He signed off."**_

 _ **"I will go with him."**_

 _ **"Okay, do you want me to come pick up Denmark?"**_

 _ **"He's fine here."**_

 _ **"Okay, see you Thursday."**_

Vash shook his head and sighed, "They're gone. They turned off their earpieces and I can't seem to find any sort of wave or transmission or anything. Not only do they have a hidden, private frequency, all of the incoming are invisible too."

Arthur sighed.

 ** _"Hey, Norway? Are you still on?"_**

Vash and Arthur both jumped. Arthur shot Vash a look and he shrugged.

 ** _"Yes. Why are you still on Finland?"_**

 ** _"When are you contacting our mole?"_**

 ** _"Don't worry about it. We have everything handled. The Kirkland team has nothing on us."_**

The whole room was frozen, listening to the mechanical voice. Arthur could almost feel the temperature drop. A mole? In the police?

 ** _"Arthur is going to loose the case soon though, we should worry about the next team, not the current one."_**

 ** _"If you say so."_**

Silence followed.

Vash leaned back in his chair with a sigh, "I've got nothing. The line's dead."

 **I am sooooo sorry it has taken me this long to update! This chapter isn't the best and I'm sorry if the North talking gets confusing, it's supposed to be, but I understand that reading it is weird too. For future reference, written things will be in italics and things over a radio will be bold and italics. I had another vertion of this chapter and scrapped it, that's why it has taken so long to update DX SO VERY SORRY!**


	9. Chapter 9

"Arthur?"

"Hmm? What? Sorry!" Arthur looked up quickly at Kiku, "What was the question?"

"What would you like us to do now?" Kiku repeated, his tone patient.

"Right! Um, what to do?" Arthur forced his brain to turn thoughts into words, the shock of the North's conversation and the mole comment was startling, but exhilarating, "Please contact the normal police and request their cooperation in an investigation on Thursday. Alfred, go find a trained profiler and-"

"Antonio profiles." Gilbert pipped up, his tone cheery and for once it didn't annoy Arthur. Arthur could practically feel the adrenaline racing through his veins; if the Vargas storage units had been a lucky break, then this was a gold mine.

"Good, can you talk to him and get him to try to get a profile on the five guys in the North?"

"I'll talk to him, but-"

"Good! Vash, try to get any sort of wave or transmission information you can and find an id code or some information on that earpiece- radio thing!" Arthur shot over to his desk and started riffling through it, his words came spilling out of him and his excitement was barley contained, "Kiku, try and get as many police units available for Thursday. Alfred, I want you to-No! Never mind, I'll do it. Alfred and Gilbert continue on with the other case and Vash contact Antonio or find a profiler or something!" Arthur grabbed a stack of papers and whisked out of the room.

This was great! This was so great! Wait. He needed to get Vladimir back. Arthur spun and poked his head back into the office.

"Hey, Gilbert, if you had just forgotten your jacket after running from the police when you had been trying to sell out a group of professional thieves, where would you go?" Arthur asked, eyes locked on the albino.

"Home." Gilbert said immediately, then scowled, "Wait! Why did you ask me?"

"You used to be a delinquent, right?" Arthur called as he turned and started off again.

"I'm a little offended!" Gilbert yelled down the hall after him, but Arthur ignored it.

Arthur turned into another set of offices and beamed at the very surprised looking Ivan, "Ivan! You seemed pretty familiar with that kid, where does he live?"

"Um. What?" Ivan said in confusion, "Kid?"

"That high schooler you scared off, Vladimir!" Arthur said and pulled a piece of paper out of his stack and offered it to Ivan, "Gilbert and I stopped him at the high school and he told us the aliases of four of the North and that ear piece is really a radio and-"

"Arthur, you are talking too fast to be understood." Ivan said and carefully took the piece of paper.

"I'm not sure I've ever heard your grammar so bad, aru." Yao said from behind his team leader, the rest of Ivan's team looking on with mild distress.

"Take a breather, man!" Sadiq laughed and Toris nodded sympathetically.

Arthur nodded quickly, he had always liked Ivan's team much more than Francis's. He took a deep breath and tried to get his brain to slow down a minute. There was so much to do and only two days to do it! Oh, wait! One day to do it! Today was Tuesday, and Thursday was right after Wednesday which was tomorrow!

"I need to talk to Vladimir!" Arthur said, forcing himself to speak slower, but with difficultly, "I need to know where he got that earpiece from and the identities of the North."

"It says you paid him for his last information." Ivan said, not looking up from the report, "How did Gilbert know he was attending that high school? You could just ask him where Vladimir lives or go to the high school and ask."

"So you don't know? That's all I needed to know, thanks!" Arthur snatched the report and shot out of the offices.

"Did I say I didn't know?" Ivan asked no one in particular, "I don't recall saying that."

Mathias sat back in his chair and smiled at the other people sitting around the kitchen table. Emil let out a small sigh and relaxed. They were at Berwald's house and the entire kitchen was filled with computer and radio parts. The table had chips and CB parts scattered all over it, and each of the North had an earpiece with the voice distorter attached to it.

Emil tossed his script onto the table and turned around to look at the video feed on a computer screen set up next to the stove. It showed the Kirkland Team's office with their desk arranged against the walls. Alfred and Gilbert sat together talking quietly while Vash messed with his computer. Kiku sat at his own desk talking on the phone with the local police and Arthur had just rushed out.

Emil turned and looked at the others. Mathias had stood and was rummaging through Berwald's fridge and Tino was fiddling with his voice distorter.

"I think it worked!" Tino laughed, "He thinks he has the upper hand and that we're total idiots who can't work together!"

"They can't track us, can they?" Lukas asked, his eyes glued to the screen. Berwald shook his head.

"Stop asking that! Berwald is the best! There is no way Vash will be able to find us from that transmission!" Mathias laughed, "This is great!"

"That mole comment sure shook them up, huh?" Finland looked up at the screen again and smiled, "That was almost too easy."

"I'm not so sure, they haven't addressed it yet." Lukas said, his voice monotone.

Emil turned around again. The sound was on low so they could hear the detectives, but no one was talking. Kiku had plopped down in a chair and was massaging his temples. Suddenly, Arthur re-entered with the same stack of papers.

Emil couldn't help but smile. The plan was to shake up Arthur some, throw him off his game and let him think he was running the show. He wasn't. They had this under control and would be orchestrating it till the very end. Then again, it was the North's mistakes that had gotten the detectives further on the case. It was the North's mistakes, and now this should make up for it. This was what it meant to be going on the offensive.

"How long do you think it will take for Gilbert to contact you?" Lukas asked and Mathias shrugged.

"I don't know or care. Gilbert hasn't contacted me since I gave him the video chip back." Mathias sat down again with a bag of licorice and started eating them, "I haven't seen a need. He can take care of himself."

"To survive in the black market, he'd have to be!" Tino said and reached crossed the table to grab a licorice, "He will think we' re betraying him, but he's a little paranoid like that."

Lukas leaned forward and propped his elbows on the table, "What are we going to do about Vlad?"

Emil stood and snatched the bag from Mathias, "Don't worry about Vlad, he won't talk because he doesn't know anything."

"Are you sure?" Lukas's eyes turned from the screen for the first time to look at Emil, "The police think that he stole it from Denmark in a bar last night."

"What's the problem with that?" Mathias picked up one of the scripts and waved it at Lukas, "That's exactly what we wanted them to think."

"But Vlad told the police he would tell them who Iceland is." Lukas said, "The story doesn't match up."

"Iceland giving it to him and getting him to agree while he was drunk at a bar isn't that much of a difference." Emil said and popped a piece of licorice into his mouth.

"Still, Vlad said he would identify Iceland, not Denmark."

Emil shrugged, "I'll talk to him."

"You'd better do it soon." Tino said, pointing to the screen, "I think that Arthur found out where Vlad lives. If they talk to him before you straighten out his story, then this whole set up will look fishy."

All eyes turned to the screen, Emil reached forward and turned up the sound.

"Kiku! With me! We're going to the school and will be back after we talk to Vlad." Arthur was saying, "We'll bring him in if we have to."

"The school is going to demand a warrant." Vash said without looking up, "It's regulation."

Arthur sighed dramatically, "Gilbert! Stop sitting around and go request a warrant to access school files! Kiku and I will be waiting at the school, call me when you have it!"

Arthur grabbed his coat and swept out of the room. The rest of the room was silent a moment before Kiku hurried after him and Gilbert sighed.

"I don't have his number." Gilbert said, "Plus, I hate asking for warrants."

"I'll do it." Alfred said, "But only if you finish up with this paperwork."

Gilbert frowned, "Of two evils, I guess I'll stick to the one I have. I'll go after that warrant."

The North watched Gilbert stand and leave.

"Why are you all so concerned? I have Vlad's number." Emil said, suppressing a sigh and forcing the panic down. He couldn't show them how scared he was. They were so close! Everything was going great and they had already messed up again! Why hadn't he told Vlad to say he would ID Denmark? Stupid Emil!

Emil pulled out his phone as quickly as he could while still appearing casual. He pulled up Vladimir's number and hit send.

The phone rang once.

"I did it! Okay? Leave me alone!" Vlad snapped, his voice high pitched with stress.

"Hi Vlad." Emil said calmly, "I just wanted to let you know that the police are going to the school with a warrant to get your address."

"What the hell!"

"You're pretty popular all the sudden." Emil said, "Listen, when they question you, they will believe that you stole the earpiece from Denmark and will want to know why you were going to ID Iceland."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Vlad's voice hit higher peaks and cracked, "Do you have any idea what you're doing to me?"

"I want you to tell them you stole it off Denmark and that you are more afraid of Denmark than Iceland, so you were willing to sell Ice out for the right price. However, those are the only two that you know the identity of."

The other end of the line was silent. Emil could hear Vlad breathing quickly and felt his own heart grow quicker. Vlad had to cooperate.

"What would you do if I really sold you out?" Vlad spoke softly now and Emil could tell that he was weighing his options. Vlad had a lot to loose if the police went digging in his life, he didn't know what he would loose if he made an enemy of the North, but fear of the more potent criminals was all that had kept him quiet so far.

Emil looked at the four faces around the table, suddenly wishing he had put the phone on speaker. Lukas and Berwald watched Emil blankly while Tino fidgeted nervously and Mathias was back to digging around in Berwald's fridge. Emil swallowed. He had everything to loose if the police caught them. He would probably go to a juvenile detention center while Lukas and the others were locked up. Tino might escape since the police only recently proved he existed, but the Santa case had been brought before the agency and given to Ivan's team. Tino would end up in jail along with the rest of them. That left Emil alone.

"You and everyone you care about will die." Emil said. To his surprise, he had no trouble keeping his tone level and calm. In a choice between destroying Vlad's life or his own, Emil barley hesitated. Besides, there was no guarantee that the police would bother Vlad after they talked to him about the North.

"Yeah right." Vlad said, his voice devoid of emotion, "You're professional thieves, not assassins."

"Some of us have darker histories than others." Emil said, turning his eyes to the table and tracing the wood grain with a finger. He didn't want to look at the others, "Is that really a gamble you want to take?"

Vlad was silent. Emil heard him sigh, then hang up. Emil lowered the phone, but he didn't look up, "I think we're okay."

"Did he threaten to sell us out?" Mathias asked.

Emil nodded.

"We can stand behind your threat." Tino said, his voice kind, "But I'd rather not have to."

"That would be crossing a line." Berwald said.

"Don't worry about it." Tino said, "I'll take care of it if it comes to that."

The calm and happiness Emil had felt after finishing the fake radio conversation was gone. That emptiness had returned. Spying was crossing a line and they had done it. It seemed to be helping them, but that cold in the pit of Emil's stomach returned. They were so close! Now they had messed up again! Why hadn't he told Vlad to say he would identify Denmark? Why hadn't they changed the script to fit Vlad's story? So close! One word might destroy them!

Emil's finger ran over the grain of the wood and traced it back. He picked up his script for the conversation and stared at it without reading it.

"It's going to be okay." Mathias said, "Arthur is a pretty smart guy, he isn't going to just take Vlad's word for gospel. We still have the job on Thursday."

"Let's move it to Friday." Lukas said.

"No. Thursday it is and we will go through with the plan." Mathias said, "When we walk away Thursday night, Arthur will be back to nothing and will have lost the faith of the normal police. We need this case to be reassigned and Thursday will do that for us."

"Jeez, Emil! You sure sounded scary!" Tino laughed, "I didn't know you could sound so much like Lukas!"

Emil looked up and glared at Tino, "I don not sound like Lukas! I'm nothing like him!"

Tino and Mathias laughed. Emil went back to glaring at the table. Why were they taking this so lightheartedly? The North had made another mistake and it could be the end of them! Why were they still going through with the plan for Thursday?

Emil pulled out his phone again and hit Vladimir's number. It rang till it got to voice mail and Emil hung up.

 **I hope you liked this chapter! I wanted to give a special shout out to all of my continued reviewers! Thank you so much! I really appreciate your support!**


	10. Chapter 10

Arthur spent the rest of Tuesday looking for Vladimir. He also spent all of Wednesday looking for Vlad. He didn't find Vlad. He did find were Vlad lived and was greeted by Vlad's overly polite little brother.

Aurel told Arthur that Vladimir had been home and packed up and left. No, he hadn't mentioned where he was going or when he would be back, sorry sir. Aurel had no clue where his older brother had went, but Aurel gave the detectives a list of places Vladimir frequented.

The list included five different arcades, four game shops, three bars, two warehouses, and the public library.

Vlad was not in any of the arcades or game shops and the police found all of the bars devoid of high schoolers and all bars denied ever serving anyone under the age of twenty one. In the warehouses they found multiple kids selling suspicions smelling things in little bags, but no Vladimir. The librarian politely told them to leave and that she would call them if Vlad showed up.

After a considerably long argument, Arthur was able to convince the police to station an officer at each location to watch out for the teen and sent out a description to all units. However. Thursday came and Vladimir was not found.

Thursday brought new business for Arthur, be he spent the whole day in the office where he could hear the earpiece when the North started on their "job". Arthur and Kiku were constantly on the phone with the police trying to coordinate people as efficiently as possible and so that there was at least two units within a five minute drive of every museum, official building, landmark, and bank in the city. They didn't know what heist the North were going to pull, but Arthur was determined to catch them in the act. The earpiece would tell them exactly what the North were doing and hopefully, where they were.

However, five in the afternoon came and the earpiece was silent. Arthur leaned back in his chair and sighed. The police chief could handle things for a few moments, besides the guy was getting pretty annoyed with Arthur micromanaging.

Arthur picked up the phone again and dialed.

"Hello? Kirkland residence."

Arthur couldn't help but smile, "Hi Peter."

"Arthur! How's work? Are you going to be back in time for dinner?" Peter asked, his chipper voice was one of those that didn't get distorted by technology. He came through loud and clear, almost as if her were standing next to Arthur. Arthur had always wondered about that; what was it about some people's voices that they sound the same on the phone as face to face.

"Sorry, I was just calling to let you and Allistor know that I won't be home tonight." Arthur said and glanced over at the rest of his team. He wasn't going to demand that they stay all night, but chances were that some of them would anyway.

"Awe, why?" Peter whined, "I brought my art project home today and I wanted to show you guys!"

"You can still show Allistor and you can show me tomorrow." Arthur said, his gaze returning to his own desk. It was a bit cluttered. He would have to fix that, "I'll be back in the morning, probably before you leave for school, so I'll see you then."

"Good! Do you want to talk to Allistor?"

"Please."

"ALLISTOR! IT'S ARTHUR! HE WON'T BE HOME TONIGHT! HE WANTS TO TALK TO YOU!"

Arthur winced and held the phone away from his ear. Was he that loud when he was young? He didn't think so.

"Arthur?"

"Allistor, I know on late nights you usually bring me dinner, but please don't bother tonight." Arthur twirled one of his pens, he had seen a video where a guy could do all these crazy tricks with a pen. Now that he thought about it, Alfred and Gilbert were just the sort to waste the time to learn that sort of thing. Maybe he should ask about it?

"Why? There is no such thing as no time to eat." Arthur could almost hear Allistor frown, "If you're too busy-"

"No, it's just that I'm going to order a few pizzas for my team." Arthur noticed Alfred perk up and glance in his direction. Didn't he know eavesdropping was rude? Well, they were in the same room, so maybe it didn't count.

"Very well." Allistor sounded relieved, Arthur thought Allistor worried too much.

"Alright, thanks!" Arthur said, "Good night!"

"Take care." Allistor hung up.

"Are you really going to order us pizza?" Alfred asked with a puppy-like hope on his face.

"No." Arthur said, "I'm going to let you order pizza and I'll pay for it."

"YES!" Alfred rocketed out of his seat and punched the air, "Stuffed crust and extra cheese, here I come!"

Gilbert laughed, "Dude, you know they deliver, right?"

"Stuffed crust and extra cheese! COME TO ME!" Alfred laughed and threw a pencil at Gilbert who caught it and promptly threw it back.

 _ **"Is anyone else on, or am I first again?"**_

The whole room froze.

 _ **"Don't kid yourself Finland! You started an hour before we did, of course you're first!"**_

 _ **"Icy! Is Norway with you?"**_

 _ **"Why do you all insist on calling me that? I'm Iceland and no, he dropped me off at the corner and will be taking the back entrance."**_

 _ **"Why didn't he turn his earpiece on?"**_

 _ **"I did."**_

 _ **"Norway!"**_

 _ **"But talking on the phone and driving is dangerous, so talking on radio must be too."**_

 _ **"Police chat on the radio all the time!"**_

 _ **"They are very unsafe drivers."**_

The room burst into motion. Vash connected wires and things to his control box and Arthur lunged for his phone.

"Arthur? We can handle-"

"No time!" Arthur snapped, " The North are on the move! We are going to transmit the feed onto your open channel so all units can hear it and react accordingly."

"Do you have a location?"

"Not yet, sorry." Arthur signaled Vash, "Okay, it should be on, can you hear it?"

"All units respond affirmative. We are going to-"

"Thanks, I'll call you back later." Arthur hung up and rocketed over to Vash, "Do you know where the waves are coming from?"

Vash shook his head, "It's jut like before, it's totally invisible."

 _ **"Denmark here."**_

 _ **"Me, Icy and Finland are already in position. Where are you guys?"**_

 _ **"I'm here, don't know about Swede."**_

 _ **"There are police everywhere, just like we were told, but I ran into some."**_

Arthur's phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Who told them?"

Arthur sighed, "Apparently there is a mole in the agency-"

"Then why are we wasting all this man power? This is ridiculous!"

"I'm sorry, I've been working on it privately, but tonight we will get them, mole or no mole." Arthur said quickly and hung up.

 _ **"Sweden here."**_

 _ **"About time, man!"**_

 _ **"Sorry."**_

 _ **"It's okay, you're just in time."**_

 _ **"Hey! If I was late you'd never let it down! Why is it okay when he's late?"**_

 _ **"Heading in now."**_

 _ **"You're doing that thing again! You can't just ignore me!"**_

 _ **"Are you in position?"**_

 _ **"Yes but-"**_

 _ **"Let it go Denmark."**_

 _ **"Fine, but make this a new record, people! We need to be in and out in less than four and a half minutes."**_

 _ **"Thanks Denmark, we don't need to be reminded."**_

 _ **"Don't get sassy with me young man!"**_

 _ **"I give everyone permission to kill Denmark the next time they see him."**_

 _ **"What?!"**_

 _ **"Yes!"**_

 _ **"I thought you wanted that honor, Norway."**_

Arthur's phone rang again.

"Hello?"

"If this is a waste and I pulled everyone from their families tonight to listen to some criminals bicker while they commit some unknown crime, then I'll personally talk to your supervisor!"

"We will catch them tonight!" Arthur snapped and hung up again.

 _ **"Can we all please focus?"**_

 _ **"I'm done already. I don't know what you slow pokes are doing."**_

 _ **"Finland! You had a head start, that doesn't count!"**_

 _ **"We are nearing three minutes people! Hurry up!"**_

 _ **"We all have watches, thank you very much."**_

 _ **"Hey, did our case get reassigned yet?"**_

 _ **"No, but our contact said that if we aren't caught tonight, then there is no way Arthur will be able to keep it."**_

 _ **"Good, maybe the next team will be a real challenge."**_

 _ **"Yeah, I'm sort of looking forward to it."**_

"Vash, please tell me you are having some progress on their location." Arthur said.

"Nothing. They must have the best masker in the world or their using some back loop I don't know about." Vash said, a hint of frustration leaking into his voice.

"What are the chances of that?"

"Very slim."

 _ **"Arthur called out all the police right?"**_

 _ **"Yep. It's okay, Sweden knows all of their positions. No worries."**_

 _ **"It wouldn't matter anyway. I'm done, you guys?"**_

 _ **"Done."**_

 _ **"On my way out."**_

 _ **"Got it."**_

"Vash! Do we have anything?" Arthur's calm was gone.

Vash shook his head.

 _ **"Yep. See you guys tomorrow for the drop off?"**_

 _ **"See you then!"**_

 _ **"Good night!"**_

 _ **"Don't get caught!"**_

There was a laugh then everything went silent.

Arthur's phone rang.

No one moved.

The air felt hot and heavy, almost suffocating.

The phone rang.

"Um, Arthur? Are you going to answer that?" Alfred asked tentatively.

The phone rang and rang.

"No." Arthur said, "I'm going home." He pulled a twenty out of his pocket and dropped it on Alfred's desk, "Here, this is for that pizza. Go home and eat with your families. There is nothing else that can be done tonight."

Arthur left the office, his phone still ringing.

Emil put down his script and glanced at all of the bird cages hanging in Tino's living room. He picked up his cup of hot chocolate and looked at the screen showing the detective's offices. They had finished the heist on Thursday, but it wasn't when the police thought it was. It was through out the day. Now they had a living room full of bird cages and a bunch of quietly startled, very exotic, birds.

This was, by far, the strangest and most exiting theft they had ever done. They had taken each bird separately through out the day since taking them all at once would have caused an unavoidable racket. They had timed it so that the birds wouldn't be missed until tomorrow, when the empty cages would be noticed, each with the North card in it instead of a bird. Tomorrow was also the day they delivered the birds to the train station where they would be paid the rest of the money and the pretty animals would be taken off of their hands.

"Again, this was too easy." Tino said and Berwald nodded, "Are they even trying?"

"Please don't mock their effort." Lukas said, "They are doing very well considering their circumstances."

"What, Lukas being nice to cops?" Mathias laughed, "I can't believe my ears!"

Lukas didn't eve look at Mathias, "Arthur's team is formidable. That is why we are doing this."

Emil stood up and walked over to the living room as the other North talked. In one cage was a crested puffin. It wasn't actually all that uncommon, but it was beautiful and had been on the list to be stolen. Emil opened the cage and let the bird onto his arm. He stroked it's back and ran a finger over the white feathers on it's head. Beautiful. He felt slightly guilt admiring it since his own puffin was so jealous of him paying attention to other animals. Oh well, his puffin would never know. He knew this animal would have a wonderful life in a private collector's aviary and would be appreciated for the beauty it was. Emil put the bird back and walked back to the kitchen. He washed his hands and sat down again.

The others were talking, but he ignored it. It didn't pertain to him, so he didn't care. What he did care about was whether the normal police had broken ties with Arthur yet. That was the point of this and with Vladimir missing, they were no longer in immediate danger. However, the moment Vlad showed up again, he had every intention of freaking out. For now, it was time for a level head.

Emil shrieked and nearly jumped out of his seat as his phone rang. The other North looked at him in surprise then started to laugh. Okay, maybe his was still wound a little tight and maybe a little on edge.

Who was calling him in the middle of the night? Okay, six wasn't exactly the middle of the night, but still.

"Hello?"

"Emil."

"Leon?" Emil frowned, what? Leon was calling him? Why? Emil looked up and noticed the sudden silence that had filled the kitchen. He scowled at the other North and walked into the living room with the birds.

"Hi." Leon had a way of sounding even more emotionless than Lukas. It was infuriating.

"Um, what do you want?" Emil tried not to sound annoyed, but he could feel the eyes of the other North. Tino's apartment was rather small and Emil was mentally cursing it.

"You weren't at school today." No, it wasn't that Leon sounded emotionless, he sounded like he didn't care. That was it, his voice was devoid of passion and care.

"Yeah, I noticed."

"Why?"

Emil looked around at all of the birds. Because I was stealing birds all day. He couldn't say that. He coughed, "Um, I was busy. Lukas excused me."

"You weren't at school, Tuesday either." Jeez, Leon was so nosy.

"I was busy then too." Emil replied as blandly as he could.

"We were assigned a group history project."

"Oh? Was I assigned to a group?" Emil hated group projects and Leon knew it.

"Yes. You are with Peter and Raivis. Your group is supposed to do a presentation on the effects of colonization."

"Peter? Peter is in my group!" Emil sighed, life just wasn't fair sometimes, "Why didn't you ask to have me in your group?"

"I did, but Peter asked first." Leon still managed to sound uncaring. Didn't he realize how much pain it would put Emil through to have to work with Peter again?

"Well, thanks for telling me." Emil sighed again, then he frowned, "Wait, colonization where? The effects of colonization in North America is different from the colonization in Africa!"

"I don't know. You can call Peter and ask." Leon said.

"He'll tell me tomorrow regardless of whether or not I ask!" Emil said, "He's so annoying."

"So, you are coming to school tomorrow?" Leon asked.

"Yep."

"Good."

"See you tomorrow then."

"Good bye. Sleep well."

"You too." Emil hung up. Leon was so weird. Leon was also Emil's best friend. Emil was in Peter's group. Darn it. What about the colonization?

"School stuff?"

Emil looked up, Lukas had followed him into the living room without him noticing. "Yep. Nothing to worry about."

"If Vlad is at school tomorrow, I'm worried." Lukas said, with a perfect deadpan expression.

"The last day Vlad was at school was Monday." Emil replied and stuffed his phone into his pocket, "Him returning the same day I return would be creepy and I would worry about us being the ones being spied on."

Tino poked his head into the living room, "You two worry too much! Come on! I'm making french toast for lunch."

"French toast?" Lukas asked turning to look inquisitively at Tino.

"For lunch?" Emil asked incredulously.

Tino laughed, "You two are so much alike it's almost scary!"

"Are not!" Emil snapped.

 **This chapter came together really quickly and I'm pretty pleased with it. :) Thanks again to all of my reviewers! I'm glad you liked the last chapter!**


	11. Chapter 11

They had robbed the zoo. Arthur wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. Here he was in a parrot aviary which apparently had half the number of parrots it was supposed to have. He couldn't tell, there were a lot of birds here, but the frantic zoo keeper said that there were more yesterday. Arthur supposed that the North business card supported the zoo keeper's story. The zoo? Seriously? Who robbed a zoo? What sort of weird was that?

Arthur scratched his head and yawned. He hadn't been happy about being called at four in the morning, but being called at all was a blessing. The police chief wasn't speaking to him, in fact, most of the normal police were avoiding him like the plague. However, a deputy had the heart to call Kiku and Kiku called Arthur. At four in the morning. He hadn't been to the offices yet, but he was sure that the moment he arrived he would be called in and the North case would be taken out of his hands. He sort of wanted that, especially after they made a fool of him last , Arthur felt guilty for even thinking something like that, in a way that would be admitting defeat. Being defeated was unacceptable.

All he needed was a ray of light. He needed something to go his way, just this once. Anything! Please! He knew he had enough pieces of the puzzle to get this case put together and done with. He just needed a corner piece, or an edge; then everything else would fall into place and the big picture would be clear.

Arthur's phone rang.

"Hello?"

"We found Vladimir. He was waiting at the office when I got here." Vash said, sounding just as tired as Arthur felt. "His brother is with him too."

Arthur closed his eyes. He felt a smile tugging at his lips. Vladimir was his corner piece. Vlad knew something. That something would give his the edge he needed.

"I'm on my way."

Emil hadn't been sleeping well. Lukas wasn't pacing, but the pounding of words racing through his head was just as bad. Why were the other North taking his mistake with Vlad so lightly? The story didn't match up. Yesterday had gone well, and Emil was trying to act normally. Still, he was scared witless. They were treading so close to being caught. Emil was wound up and stressed.

He tried to hide it, he tried so hard so that the other North wouldn't worry. Still, they seemed to notice. Tino and Mathias had dropped by the house this morning with licorice and chocolate. Lukas had made a wonderful breakfast and everyone seemed to be pampering him. He hated it. He hated that they could take this pressure so easily then worried over him because he was bending. Vlad wasn't the North's weak link; Emil was.

School dragged on. It was monotonous and slow. Emil found himself staring at the clock almost constantly. When lunch came he grabbed his lunch box and nearly ran to the court yard. Leon was waiting and just as they were about to walk out to the tree they usually ate under, Emil turned and walked back inside.

"Emil? Whats wrong?" Leon asked, turning and following Emil with a concern that Emil rarely saw in his friend.

There was a police car parked right outside. Emil frowned and shook his head, "Want to eat in the library today?"

Leon shrugged and the two moved further into the building. Emil could almost feel his blood pressure shooting through the roof. He knew that there were lots of other explanations for the police to be here, but that car was Arthur's. Unless Arthur wanted to check something about Vlad, he had no reason to be here. Emil's chest felt tight, he was scared. He wanted to hide somewhere, but that would be even more suspicious if he ran. Could he call someone? Lukas was at work today at the mall, Tino was at the drop off protecting Mathias as they got the birds moved onto the train, that left Berwald. Emil whipped out his phone, he noted that his hands were shaking. No, calling someone would be suspicious too. He put his phone away.

Emil swallowed thickly. He was the North's weak link. He was going to be the unbecoming of them all.

"What's wrong, Emil?" Leon asked again, his tone implied that this question was more of a demand.

Emil shook his head again and opened his lunchbox, "Um, it's nothing. Really, don't worry about it."

"You always have been terrible at lying." Leon said blandly, "I'm worried."

"Well, don't be." Emil replied quickly, "It's a was to worry about me when nothing's wrong." Lukas had tucked the packet of licorice into the box. Emil opened it and stuffed a strand into his mouth.

The school intercom croaked to life and the library was filled with a mechanical voice. "Emil Steilsson, please report to the office. Emil Steilsson, please report to the office. Thank you."

Emil wanted to cry. What was he supposed to do? What was he supposed to do? He should have called Berwald, he should have-

"Emil. Stop freaking out." Leon said, "It's freaking me out."

"I'm not freaking out!" Emil snapped.

"You're sitting there like a statue, you're paler than usual, you're fists are clenched, you just yelled at me, and you're breathing is unnaturally fast." Leon said, checking off things on his figures, "You are freaking out."

Emil shut his eyes. Leon was right. He was freaking out. Calm down, it's going to be okay. He didn't even know if it was Arthur, maybe he left his notebook in another class and it was turned in or something. He needed to stop jumping to conclusions. It was going to be okay. Arthur would never track anything back to him.

Unless Vlad told him.

Emil was the weak link. Emil had revealed his identity to Vlad.

Emil stood and grabbed his backpack. He started out of the library mechanically, he felt like a robot. There was a sound from behind him and Leon appeared at his side.

"You don't have to come." Emil said.

"I know." Leon replied.

Emil entered the office and wanted to turn and run. Arthur and Vash stood by the secretary's desk. Both looked up as he and Leon entered. Both looked evil.

Arthur smiled and stepped forward, "Ah! Emil, how are you doing? I heard that you and Peter are in another group together. Colonization? Isn't it?"

"Yes, specifically focusing on England's colonization of North America and Spain's colonization of South America." Emil said, forcing his voice to not sound flat. He tried to return Arthur's smile, "Did you put in a call for me?"

"I did." Arthur's voice seemed to chance, it grew harder and cold, "I need to talk to you about a criminal group called the North. We have some information that you might know something."

It took all of Emil's self control to not react. He was the weak link and had messed up with telling Vlad, but there was no reason the police would believe Vlad had told the truth. He frowned and shook his head, "I've read about them in the newspaper, but I'm not sure why you would think I know anymore than anyone else." Emil said, it was strangely comforting having Leon standing silently next to him. Leon would react normally and that assurance was calming.

"Really?" Arthur glanced at Vash and gave a slight nod, they must be reading Emil better than he was acting. Then again, they were cops, they ought to be pretty good at reading people, "We were told that not only do you know something, but that you were a member of the North."

Emil noticed that the school office had gone silent, everyone was listening. He let his frown deepen and studied Arthur, as if trying to decided whether or not he was joking, "Um, what? You think I'm part of a criminal organization? You're joking, right?"

"I'm afraid not." Arthur said, "We are going to have to ask you to come with us."

"Can it wait til after school?" Emil asked, "I've been absent a lot lately and I need to make up a lot of work if I'm going to keep my grades up."

"I'm very sorry, but you are going to have to come with us now." Arthur's voice had grown colder, Emil could tell he wasn't happy about this, but somehow, something Emil had done had made Arthur suspicious.

"Can I go get my lunch or call my guardian or something?" Emil let a bit of panic into his voice, every kid would be upset about being arrested. This was what everyone would do. Right?

"Yes. Vash can go with your friend while you call your parents." Arthur said.

"Guardian." Emil corrected automatically, his voice falling toneless and he pulled out his phone. Emil felt a bit more panic fill him as Vash and Leon left. The office was still quiet. Why was he so bad at acting normal? He really ought to call Berwald, but Lukas was his guardian, so that's who he was calling, work or no work. Emil punched in his number, it rang then went directly to voice mail. Lukas's phone was off. "Um, hi Lukas, um, I'm here with Mr. Kirkland and he says he needs to take me in for questioning about the North. You know, that theft organization in the news? Yeah, so, um, can you pick me up at the station or something?"

Emil hung up and looked up at Arthur, "Um, that was his voicemail, can I call someone else too?"

Arthur's face was unreadable. The silence of the office stretched. Arthur seemed to be trying to decided how much damage Emil could do with one more phone call. Apparently, Emil was doing a good job of looking harmless because Arthur finally nodded.

Emil punched in Berwald's number. There was half of a ring when Berwald picked up the phone.

"Emil."

"Hey, um I can't get a hold of Lukas, so um, can you try and let him know that I'm at the police station?" Emil found himself staring at the ground. He blinked and glanced up at Arthur. That same politely blank expression covered the detective's face. It was unnerving.

"I know." Berwald said in monotone.

"Pardon?" Emil tried not to choke. Arthur could only hear his end of the conversation and Emil was glad.

"Go with them." Berwald said.

"Just tell Lukas, okay?"

"No. Go with them."

Emil's mind raced, why was Berwald acting like this? Was he going to be at all helpful? Berwald was Emil's friend, right? "Can you go to the mall and tell him? Please?"

"It's going to be okay."

Emil blinked. Had he imagined it? It sounded like Berwald's voice sounded almost caring there for a moment. Emil nodded, even though he knew Berwald couldn't see him, "Okay. Thanks." Emil hung up and looked up at Arthur. "Thanks."

Arthur smiled warmly, "No problem."

The room Emil was escorted to was empty except for one table and one chair. He sat in the chair and studied his reflection in the long piece of glass that took up one wall. He was sure that there were people on the other side of the glass who could see him, but he had no way of knowing.

Emil took a bite out of his sandwich. The police had said that Emil was allowed to finish his lunch. Emil wasn't hungry, but he supposed that not eating would make him look as nervous as he felt. Emil chewed without tasting his food.

Looking at himself in the mirror, he saw a pale, frightened little boy. That was what he was. The weak link. Sitting alone in a room with one way glass looking into it. He took another bite of his food and forced himself to swallow.

The door reflected in the glass opened and Emil watched Arthur enter, tailed by a tall man Emil didn't recognize. Emil looked away from the glass and looked up at the real Arthur.

Arthur had brought another chair with him and sat down in it crossed from Emil. Arthur polity folded his hands in front of him and smiled at Emil.

"Well, I just have some questions I'd like to ask you." Arthur said pleasantly, "This man is Mr Ivan Brzezinski, he is the head of another team."

"Then why is he here?" Emil asked, forcing himself to take another bite of his sandwich.

"It's regulation to have two unit leaders present when questioning a minor." Ivan said with a smile.

Emil shivered. Right. He was a minor. He was also very important to the police. They wouldn't hurt him, would they? Nah.

"Emil, why were you absent from school on Thursday?" Arthur asked pleasantly, as if they were having a lovely conversation over tea.

Emil knew how to answer this, at least. He and Lukas always thought up something for all of his absences, "My brother's car broke down and I wasn't able to get to the bus stop. I could have rode my bike but I would have missed my first two periods, so he called and excused the absence."

"How did you get the car working again?"

"A friend came over and fixed it."

"Oh, good! Why were you absent on Tuesday?"

"I got sick." Emil said and gave up trying to eat, "I had a doctor's note."

"You're feeling better I assume?" Arthur's voice was like honey. Emil wasn't sure it was possible for him to hate Arthur any more than he already did.

"Yes, thank you." How long did Arthur intend to drag this out? Emil was determined to not crack. He would not give the police what they wanted. He was a suspect, but they couldn't prove anything. He knew that.

 **Again, I'm not too pleased with this chapter. It seems my writing has gotten sloppier the further into this story I get. Sorry.**

 **Things are reving up to our climax though! Thanks for all of the continued support!**


	12. Chapter 12

Arthur looked at the two very angry blonde men and cleared his throat and tried again, "I'm very sorry, but we are going to have to hold Emil until he is cleared of suspicion. He will be treated with up most curtsy and respect, I assure you!" Arthur wasn't sure why he was the one that had to deal with this, he was the unit leader, couldn't he assign this to someone else?

The shorter of the two, Lukas, who was apparently Emil's brother or guardian or something glowered at Arthur, "So you are just going to hold him till he confesses to something he didn't do?"

"How is that legal?" Yelped the taller of the two, Mathias, who . . . . . Arthur wasn't sure why he was here, maybe just support for Lukas, "Where in the law is it okay for police to hold little boys just because of a suspicion?"

"We are a private detective agency, we don't run by all of the same rules as the police." Arthur started, "However-"

"This is ridiculous!" Mathias yelled, throwing up his hands and glaring down at Arthur, "We can sue!"

Arthur glanced over his shoulder at Kiku, who was standing by uselessly for moral support. Turning back to the two irate men Arthur sighed. He could understand why Lukas was upset, after all who wouldn't be if their straight A, perfect student little brother was brought in for criminal charges? Arthur knew that he would be through the roof if something like this happened to Peter.

Still, Peter was innocent, Emil was not. That, Arthur was sure of.

"Emil can go home tomorrow, maybe sooner! The moment he is cleared, we will let you know!" Arthur said, "You may have supervised visits whenever you want until he is released."

"Like a prisoner." Lukas said, his voice cold and his eyes colder. Those eyes bore into Arthur and sent a shiver down his back; this was not a man to trifle with.

"No, this if for Emil's own good. If he is innocent, he won't be bothered for the rest of the case! This will never been on any of his records and if he is guilty, we can get him help." Arthur said and glanced back at Kiku to avoid looking at Lukas anymore. Lukas was intimidating without acting hostile, furthermore Arthur couldn't blame Lukas for his fury.

"You monster!" Mathias yelled, "Not only do you think Emil is a criminal, you think there is something wrong with him!"

"No-" Arthur said quickly, "I just-"

"Don't you think that locking him up is more damaging than anything else you could to to him?" Mathias demanded, his voice loud and oppressive.

"Please, everything is going to be fine." Arthur said, refusing to be cowed, "Emil-

Mathias stepped forward and grabbed Arthur's collar so fast Arthur didn't have time to react as he was lifted off of his feet and brought to the taller man's eye level, "If anything happens to Emil, you will regret it."

Arthur resisted the urge to kick Mathias. Kicking him would be impolite and the guy had a right to be concerned. Still, hanging here like a doll was unnerving and it took all of Arthur's self control to just look back at Mathias in a dignified manner.

"Mathias." Lukas said, his tone almost warning.

For a moment Mathias's grip tightened and Arthur could feel his windpipe closing, then Mathias dropped Arthur unceremoniously and turned, stalking towards the door. Lukas gave Arthur one last glance before turning and following his friend.

Arthur watched them go. He didn't want to see their reaction when he finally got the evidence against Emil. He wasn't sure how he was going to get it, but he knew it had to exist. Emil was guilty. Emil was Iceland. Arthur was sure of it.

Vlad's words had been too extreme, too crazy to believe at first. Emil? Little white haired Emil? That overly polite and placid boy who worked with Peter on that group project? That Emil? Seriously? Not possible! Emil was polite and shy and defiantly not professional thief quality.

Arthur still didn't think that Emil was professional thief quality, but Emil was, without a doubt, a member of the North. Vlad had been telling the truth. Emil was guilty.

Arthur moved back in to the building and passed all of the offices. He walked into the holding facilities and looked into the cell that now housed Emil.

The kid lay on his back on the white cot, staring at the ceiling. Guilty. Defiantly. Arthur just needed to prove it.

In all honestly, part of Arthur was disappointed that Emil was so unimpressive a criminal. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn't a high strung, wispy, white haired kid who was top of his sophomore class. Emil was interesting. He made a huge effort to not seem high strung, he tried to be laid back and uncaring and that was exactly what Arthur had seen in him when he had first met Emil for Peter's group project. Yep, Arthur's first understanding of Emil was proved wrong during the questioning today.

Emil tried to keep up his facade, but Arthur could see the signs of stress coming off of the kid in waves. Emil was tense and he tapped constantly. It was possible Emil wasn't even aware of the tapping, but both Arthur and Ivan had keyed into that almost immediately. The tapping sped up when Arthur asked particular questions and slowed at others. Emil's tapping switched between his foot and his hand on the table, but it was constant. Then there were those little flashes of fear. Every now and then, Emil's face would transform into a mask of terror, almost immediately he would get control of himself and the emotionless, uncaring expression would return, but those little flashes told Arthur just how much stress Emil was dealing with.

If Emil really was the quiet, laid back person he pretended to be, then it didn't make sense for him to be that stressed if he was innocent. Plus, Emil was undoubtedly a smart kid, if he was innocent he wouldn't bother with being worried. The tapping was an impulsive behavior and when Arthur had met Emil before, he hadn't noticed any figetting of any kind. Emil was very good and presenting a good kid to the world, but he was not good at doing it in such intense situations.

Still, Arthur had been trying extremely hard to not make the questioning intense. He had been friendly and they had taken breaks multiple times. Emil was the one making the sessions so intense for himself by winding himself up as tight as he was.

Everything Emil was doing lined up perfectly with what Vlad had told them.

Emil was guilty.

The kid shifted on the cot and sat up. Arthur knew that Emil couldn't see him, it was one way glass and all he would be able to see was his own reflection. However, Emil looked at the glass, his eyes scanning it with a knowing expression. He knew that someone was watching him.

Tomorrow, Emil might crack. The night in the cell, the stress, maybe the kid would slip up and his story would change. Arthur sighed. He had control of this, he would find out where that stupid family relic was and get all of the North into jail.

It was nearly time to head home. Arthur turned away and started down the hall.

Arthur poked his head into Ivan's team's office and waved at Ivan, "Hey, thanks for stepping in for me. Sorry about the short notice."

"No problem." Ivan said with a shrug and a smile, "It's been slow today, but tomorrow we are doing some field work, so you will have to ask someone else to be in there with you."

Arthur nodded, "Okay, thanks again!"

Arthur started on toward his team's office. He had pulled Ivan away from his team today so that there were the required number of team leaders present during Emil's questioning. If Ivan hadn't been available, he would have had to ask Francis. Tomorrow he might have to. Arthur sure didn't want to, but over his dislike for Francis, he wanted to finish the North case, and that meant talking to Emil. Maybe he could ask someone else? Who's team wasn't busy? Everyone was busy.

Arthur walked past his offices and on to Francis's. He stepped inside and looked at the three desks. Gilbert's was a mess, even though he hadn't been using it recently. Antonio's was tidy, but in an unorganized way, while Francis's was spotless. How did he do that?

"Francis?" Arthur asked, "Are you busy tomorrow?"

"Do you want me to be busy tomorrow?" Francis asked with a smile.

"I need another team leader to be with me to talk to a minor I brought in today." Arthur said quickly.

"Of course! I'd love to!" Francis said then turned to Antonio, "You can handle things here, can't you?"

Antonio nodded and Arthur quickly left before Francis could start talking again. Arthur finished up his work as quickly as he could and walked out to his car.

The air was crisp and he would see a group of dark clouds gathering on the horizon. A rain might do the city good, besides Arthur always relished the scent of rain.

When Arthur got home he was surprised to see Allistor's car missing from the driveway. Allistor usually got home before he did. Well, there was no reason to not start making dinner. Allistor usually handled the cooking, but it would be nice of Arthur to give him a break.

Arthur was just starting to get the pots down when the door opened and Allistor came in.

"Hello!" Arthur called, "I'm cooking tonight, okay?"

"No!" Allistor said quickly, hurrying into the kitchen, "I'll cook!"

"Okay, if you want to." Arthur said with a sigh, "Why are you so late? Something happen at work?"

"No," Allistor said and started putting the pots away again, "I came home at the usual time, but Peter didn't get off the bus and wasn't answering his phone, so I went to the school to pick him up."

"I'm sure his phone died again, he always forgets to charge it at night." Arthur said, watching as Allistor got a pan and filled it with oil, "What's for dinner?"

"Fried potatos." Allistor said, "I figured he forgot too, lucky that you picked him up before I got there."

Arthur frowned, "What?"

Allistor over at Arthur in surprise, "You picked Peter up at school, didn't you? He wasn't there when I went and the ladies in the office said that he had gotten picked up."

"No, I came straight home."

"Then who picked up Peter?"

"PETER!" Arthur shot up and raced into the living room, "PETER! ARE YOU HERE?"

Allistor and Arthur searched the house, Arthur taking the ground floor and Allistor bolting upstairs. Arthur found no sign of Peter. He took the stairs two at a time and nearly ran into Allistor, who was standing in the doorway to Peter's room. Arthur backed up and looked at his brother's back. Allistor was stock still and tense. His fists were clenched, but his arms hung limply at his sides. Arthur slowly edged around him and looked into the room.

It was perfectly clean, Peter never left it looking this good. The window was open, letting in the smell of rain and a gentle breeze that made the curtains flutter. The room looked like one of the rooms one might see in a designer magazine; it was so clean and picturesque. On the bed was a set of cloths laid out and folded, like how a mother might if she was the sort to choose her children's outfits. On the cloths was a white business card with two words.

 _The North_

Outside, the first drops of rain started to fall.

Emil lay on the cot and sighed. They had said that this was a temporary situation. Tomorrow they would have a real bed for him. That was nice of them. He hoped he didn't have to be here tomorrow.

Arthur had said that when he was cleared of suspicion, he could leave. In that case, tomorrow Emil would try harder to clear himself. He knew he hadn't messed up this time. He hadn't said anything incriminating and could prove all of his claims.

Now Emil was here. In this cell on this cot. At least they had allowed him his backpack after they had searched it. He pulled out his homework and started at it. He really didn't want to do this.

Emil dropped his homework on the floor and buried his face in his pillow. He could feel his eyes pricking, but he was determined not to cry. He would not let them win. They had nothing on him. He knew that this would become a war of attrition. A war of wearing the other side down. Emil would not be the one to break. The couldn't hold him forever and Lukas would get a lawyer or something and get him out.

Emil swallowed back the tears that kept threatening to fall. He wasn't going to break, he wasn't going to give them what they wanted. If he did, he would be destroying his entire life. He would be sending everyone he cared about to jail and would be sent to a detention center for his troubles. Emil wouldn't let that happen.

He just hoped the others were okay. He hoped the drop off of the birds went smoothly. He hoped Mathias would stay over at their house tonight and eat dinner with Lukas. He hoped everyone ate dinner with Lukas, so he wouldn't be alone. Emil wished he wasn't so alone. He felt miles away, an ocean away, but he hoped that they were all okay and didn't worry about him.

Emil sat up and leaned against the wall, clutching the pillow to his chest. He hoped they found a lawyer who would get him out. He hoped it happened soon, because he wasn't sure how much of being this alone he could take. No. He couldn't think like that. Emil would win this. He wouldn't break.

Emil squeezed his eyes shut, but the tears leaked out and ran down his cheeks. He cried quietly into the pillow and rocked back and forth. The cell was silent, except for his gentle sobs.

 **A lot has happened in the last few chapters and expect a lot more in the future, I want to make this fic less than twenty chapters long, so an end is in sight! That being said: thank you so much to all of my reviewers! I so look forward to seeing what you guys think XD**

 **Also, after reading .weeb's reveiws, I wanted to extend the question out to the rest of you: Who do you want to win? North or Police? Your answer isn't going to change the out come, but I am curious!**

 **Anyway, thanks again!**


	13. Chapter 13

The cell door opened and Gilbert entered with what Emil figured was his breakfast. Emil didn't bother to sit up or look at the other albino, hopping that the guy would get the message and leave.

"Your guys hired Ludwig and he got Lukas a visit with you later today." Gilbert said, putting the tray down and sitting down on the ground next to the cot.

"Who's Ludwig?" Emil asked.

"My brother. He's a crimminal defense lawyer." Gilbert said, "Funny, huh? I'm a detective and try to put people in jail and he tries to keep them out of it."

"I don't want to imagine what your dinner conversations must be like." Emil said blandly, "What do you want?"

Gilbert chuckled, "What? Am I not allowed to chat with a friend of a friend?"

"I'm not Mathias's friend."

Gilbert shot Emil an evil grin, "He said you'd say that."

"Go away."

"No. I was told to update you on your current situation."

Emil couldn't help but glance at Gilbert. He sat up and looked at the breakfast without enthusiasm, "I'm listening."

"Your guys kidnapped Peter."

Emil choked, "What? Why don't go prove to Arthur I'm part of the North? Are they seriously going to make this a 'give back my little brother and I'll give back yours'? That's ridiculous! They don't think I can handle this! They think I'm going to crack! They should have waited and-"

"Yo! Slow down! They don't think that!" Gilbert interrupted quickly, "Lukas said that Arthur already believes you're guilty and, nothing you do is going to change his mind. They don't see the point of leaving you in here any longer than necessary and Arthur has no intention of letting you out."

Emil glared at Gilbert.

"Hey! Don't hate the messenger!" Gilbert whined, "Lukas's visit with you will be supervised, so he won't be able to talk to you openly."

"And where is Mr. Kirkland? Why isn't he supervising you?" Emil snapped, "It's not like he trusts you!"

Gilbert shrugged, "He hasn't come in yet. It's not like his to be late, but with Peter missing, it isn't surprising."

Emil glared at his breakfast. The North kidnapped Peter.

Lukas leaned over and looked over the building blueprint. There was a red X on one room. There was a note at the bottom.

We want the child. We will pay 300,000.

Lukas and Emil looked over the crumpled paper and Lukas sighed, "We don't do kidnappings."

"That's a lot of money."

Lukas straightened and started to pace again. Emil watched him go back and forth. A cold dread filling him with each step.

Mathias entered, he took one look at the paper and crumpled it up again with a dark laugh, "Who do they think we are? We don't do kidnappings."

"It's a lot."

"We don't do kidnappings." Mathias said again, he walked carefully to the fridge and got himself another beer, "That's final."

The North had kidnapped Peter. For Emil. To protect Emil. Because Arthur already knew. Because Emil had given himself away.

What did they think he was some child who needed protecting? Arthur could know, but if he had no evidence, then there was no problem, right? They overstepped their boundaries! Emil could take care of himself! Emil wasn't going to crack!

Arthur already knew. Emil had already failed. Emil was the North's weak link. They kidnapped Peter. For Emil.

Emil could feel his eyes welling up with tears again. It wasn't fair. Why was this happening? People did what they had to in order to get by. Stealing was how they survived. They didn't deserve this. Emil had forced them, his friends, his family, to do something truly cruel. Kidnapping. To take Peter from his friends and family. All for Emil.

Emil was the weak link.

Emil hadn't even noticed Gilbert had moved until the man was hugging him. Gilbert hugged Emil and was silent as Emil cried.

"It's going to be okay." Gilbert said softly, there was something brotherly about Gilbert, something that reminded Emil of Lukas, "Life just sucks sometimes, but it's going to be okay."

"We done for." Emil choked out between sobs, "We're done."

"No you're not. You'll be fine."

Emil pushed Gilbert away and glared at him through his tears, "You're right! I will! I will be fine! I know I will because they are idiots and are going to do something stupid and I'm going to loose them!"

Gilbert just stared at Emil for a moment then smiled gently, "Nah, they know how to take care of themselves. They're the best. Don't worry about them, they will handle everything."

"Thats it! That's the problem!" Emil's voice was high, on the verge of screeching, and tears streamed down his face, "They will handle everything! They always handle everything! What about me? What am I supposed to do when they're locked up?"

"It won't come to that." Gilbert said, shaking his head, "It won't, Ludwig will make sure of that."

Emil just stared at Gilbert. He wanted to believe him. Emil really wanted to believe that everything was going to be alright. He just couldn't.

The door swung open and both albinos jumped and looked at the newcomer. Vash looked at them impassibly. Silence stretched and Emil wiped his cheeks.

"Gilbert, Arthur lost the case. It's being given to your team." Vash said then turned on heels and left.

Emil stared at the empty doorway the turned slowly and looked at Gilbert, his new enemy. Gilbert's eyes were fixed on the floor. They both knew things were different now, Emil just wasn't sure how different or if it was a good thing.

"Everything is going to be okay, right?" Emil asked softly, hoping Gilbert was still on his side.

Gilbert looked up, his face unreadable. He studied Emil then stood and started toward the door, "We'll see, won't we?" The cell door swung closed.

Arthur came out of the boss's office and looked at the group of people who had assembled there. Arthur blinked. His whole team stood there, looking upset and angry. Francis's team was also there, looking please, except Gilbert, who looked rather conflicted.

"What?" Arthur asked, looking at them.

"We lost the case." Alfred said numbly.

Where did they get that idea? Okay, they had come close to loosing the case, but Arthur could be surprisingly persuasive when he wanted to be. Arthur couldn't help but smile. That's what all of this was about? He shook his head, "No we didn't."

"But Francis said you were called to the boss as soon as you got here!" Alfred said, concern still etched in his face, "Why else would you be called?"

Arthur smirked, "The North case is being given top priority since the kidnapping and we have the whole department at our disposal."

The grin fell from Francis's face. Arthur couldn't help but feel some satisfaction at that. His own team gave a collective sigh of relief and all turned to head back to their office. Francis frowned.

"Is that all they wanted to tell you?" Francis asked.

"No." Arthur said and walked past Francis and after his team. He wasn't about to give Francis the satisfaction of knowing they had tried to take the case from him. He had only just convinced them to let him keep it, but Francis didn't need to know that.

"Arthur-" Francis started, but Arthur kept walking.

"Sorry, I've got to prepare for Lukas's visit!" Arthur called over his shoulder, "Talk to you later!"

The moment Arthur got to his office, his team looked at him expectantly. They knew that things were different now.

"Vash, track down every single person Emil has regular contact with and get me a list." Arthur said, walking over to his desk, "Alfred, put the other case on pause and you and Gilbert go get all of Emil's absence records from the school. I also want grades and any behavior or health reports. Kiku, you and Vash are going to go start talking to the people on the list that Vash makes."

"What are you going to do?" Alfred asked.

Arthur smiled, "Lukas has a visit today, so I need to be present for that, but his lawyer will be there too. Also, I need to talk with Vlad some more."

Alfred nodded and the team got to work. Arthur pulled out the report for his first talk with Vlad and glanced through it.

"Arthur?"

Arthur jumped and looked up at Vash; he hadn't even noticed him come over, "Yes?"

Vash frowned, "You are taking this rather well."

"Pardon?"

"Peter being taken."

Arthur's face must have fallen for a second, because Vash gave a small nod. Arthur swallowed and turned back to his work, "Don't worry about it. Get that list."

"We're all here for you." Vash said, then turned and went back to his desk.

Arthur stared at the report and shook his head. He wished he could turn to his team. Even if the radio conversations with the North had been scripted, the North had known about Arthur having called out the police to help him. The North did have a mole. A mole in Arthur's team. He was alone among the people he had thought would always have his back. He couldn't trust any of them.

Arthur led Lukas and his lawyer to the room where Emil was. Emil sat waiting and stood the moment that Lukas entered the room. The two brothers just looked at each other, then Emil surged forward and embraced Lukas. Lukas was stunned a moment before returning the hug.

The two brothers had a striking resemblance. Emil was practically a small, white haired Lukas. When they finally sat down, Arthur stood behind Emil and Lukas's lawyer stood behind Lukas.

"Are they treating you well?" Lukas asked, giving Arthur a cold look, "Are you doing okay?"

"Yes." Emil said, "No complaints."

"We'll have you out of here soon, I promise."

"Thanks."

"Everyone wanted to talk to you, but I was the only one allowed in." Lukas pulled a smart phone out his pocket and turned it on, "We set up a web chat last night."

Lukas put the phone between them and Emil leaned over.

"Hey! Emilly! How you doing?"

Arthur couldn't see the screen, but he saw Emil smile for the first time since he had met the boy.

"I'm okay. You guys aren't mad, are you?" Emil said, his voice more emotional then Arthur had heard it.

"Hey! Give me the phone!"

"No! Give it back!"

"Hi Emil! When you get out, you owe us a huge explanation!"

"Yeah, sorry guys." Emil said softy, "Don't do anything stupid without me, okay?"

"Us? Do something stupid? What are you talking about?"

"Listen, I'm going on vacation for a while, so you probably won't see me when you get out."

"Oh?" Emil said, "Okay."

Arthur glanced at Lukas's lawyer. They guy had an excellent poker face.

"Emil? We aren't mad, just worried. Come home soon, okay?"

"Yeah! Get your butt back here!"

Emil nodded.

"You don't need to stress out, okay? Everything is going to be okay."

Emil nodded.

"Don't look like that! It'll be fine! I promise! We all promise!"

"I promise!"

"Promise."

Emil nodded, "Okay. I'm so sorry."

"Don't worry about it!"

"Hey, I've got to go to work now."

"Yeah, talk to you again soon!"

Lukas leaned forward and took the phone. "See, everyone's okay."

Emil continued staring at the place where the phone had been and he nodded yet again. "Do you have to go too?"

Lukas gave a small sigh, "Yes."

As Arthur lead Lukas and his lawyer into the hallway and closed the door, Emil watched them with wide, childish eyes. Arthur didn't want to think about what the kid was going through.

"Lukas? Would you mind talking to me for a while?" Arthur asked politely, "I have a few things I'd like to ask you."

Lukas glanced at his watch, "I'll have to leave for work in twenty minutes."

"I'll try not to take that long." Arthur lead them to a room similar to where he had questioned Emil the day previously and sat down, "To start out, where do you work?"

"I'm a guard at the mall." Lukas said and sat down across from Arthur, his lawyer stationing himself behind his client.

"And are you able to comfortably support yourself and Emil with that?" Arthur asked.

"We get by. Our parents left us a considerable amount in their will." Lukas's face was perfectly blank, not unlike Kiku or Vash. However, there was an underlying hostility in Lukas. It was suddle and Arthur may have not noticed it if he hadn't been expecting it. All told, Lukas was handling things extremely well.

"Did you ever suspect Emil might be engaged in crimminal activity? Does he have any past of risky behavior?" Arthur asked.

"No, I still don't believe it." Lukas said.

"Do you have any past in any crimminal activity?"

"I used to graphiti trains." Lukas said, his face still blank.

Arthur nodded with a small smile, "Yes, my older brother did as well."

"I don't think that immediately condemns the younger sibling."

"Oh! No, of course not!"

"Are we done here?"

Arthur sighed, if Lukas didn't want to talk at this point, there wasn't much Arthur could do about that, "I suppose so. Thank you for your time."

Lukas stood and started for the door, then stopped, "I will sue this agency to get Emil back. He's innocent."

Arthur looked back at Lukas, the challenge in those eyes was unmistakable, "You work as a guard at the mall, I'm not sure how you would manage that."

Lukas's face grew hard, "I will do whatever it takes to get him back."

"Of course."

Lukas turned and looked at Arthur with that piercing gaze, "What would you have me do? What would you do to get your brother back?"

Arthur flinched, "I'm doing absolutely everything I can think of to get him back."

Lukas's eyes widened, the mask cracked and a look of confusion crossed his face, "Excuse me?"

"The North kidnapped my younger brother Peter."

A stream of conflicting emotions raced across Lukas's face; frustration, sympathy, anger, and his face softened, "I'm sorry."

Arthur shook his head. There was nothing he could say. He understood how Lukas felt, but at least Lukas knew where Emil was, who he was with, and could visit. At least Lukas knew Emil was safe.

"Do you really think Emil is apart of this?" Lukas's voice was tired, scared, and soft.

Arthur nodded, "I'm sorry."

 **I hope you're still liking this story, we are coming to the climax :)**

 **As always, thanks to my reviewers! You guys are awesome!**


	14. Chapter 14

When Arthur got back to the office it was pleasantly empty. Kiku and Vash were gone, probably trying to track down all of Emil's contacts. While Alfred and Gilbert had gone to the school for Emil's records. Arthur had the office to himself. What a rare occasion.

When he got to his desk, he frowned. There was a piece of paper laying on top of everything that he hadn't put there. He picked it up. At first his brain didn't want to comprehend what it saw. The first emotion he felt was anger which quickly faded into understanding.

It was a resignation letter. From Kiku. Kiku was resigning. Kiku had gotten another job. There was a note at the bottom of the paper.

 _I'm sorry Arthur, but I have a little sister I have to think about. With Peter being kidnapped, I can't risk her being taken. The North are dangerous and even if we know Emil is guilty, we can't prove it yet. I would ask to be transferred to another team, but I'd rather not. I found a job at a tech company and will be working with you for another two weeks so you have a chance to replace me if needed. Again, I'm sorry._

This was out of no where. Arthur had thought Kiku was happy working here. Apparently not.

Oh well. Arthur couldn't blame him. Had he known that the North were going to kidnap Peter or humiliate him and his team in front of the whole police force, he probably would have given up the case to Francis after the bank break in. Maybe. No. Probably not.

Arthur wouldn't give this case up for anything. He has wanted it for too long. He had spent weeks hoping it would be assigned to him since that first North card had been found. Arthur had so much invested in this case. It had cost him so much sleep, so many days off, it took his brother, but even before that, he had been living for this case. Every day, even at home, he went through information, worried, fretted, mulled, and ever waking hour was consumed with the North. Arthur hated them so much. Even before they took Peter, he had developed a loathing for these genius thefts.

Treating Emil civilly hadn't been hard before, but Arthur found it getting increasingly difficult. Emil was not what Arthur had expected, but there was no doubt about his guilt. Arthur knew Emil did not personally kidnap Peter, but it was Emil fault that his cronies did. However, the more time Arthur spent with Emil, he was more and more sure that Emil was a lesser member. Whatever role Emil played in the North, it was not too terribly important, but the other members clearly wanted Emil back. So, he was looking for people with attachment to Emil.

A criminal organization whose members where close was not uncommon. Gangs were often thought of as second families and it would make sense for such an efficient group as the North to be fond of each other. Chances were that the North might even meet up or see each other on a daily basis.

The list Vash and Kiku came up with would be crucial. It would include all close family and friends of Emil. Expect Kiku was resigning. He would still be with the team for another two weeks, but Arthur knew that given the first chance to get out, Kiku would.

At least they had Gilbert for a while. As much as Arthur hated to say it, Gilbert had been useful. Not recently, however.

Arthur was looking forward to meeting the master mind behind the North. He wanted to meet the guy who organized the wonderful thefts and he wanted to see that person behind bars. He wanted to see that person in the prison garb and he hoped that the North's leader would have enemies in prison. Arthur hated the guy so much that Arthur almost expected to know the man when he met him. Such intense hate must effect the other person on some unconscious level, right? Arthur had read an article about different magic energies people let off and how they effect others. Arthur had thought it was a ridiculous idea, but him hating someone so much must effect the North's mastermind in some way, right?

 _ **"Where is the Vampire?"**_

Arthur froze. The earpiece was still hooked up. He looked around wildly, wishing Vash was here.

 _ **"We know you can hear us. We also know the Vamp is to blame."**_

 _ **"Where is he?"**_

 _ **"I've looked everywhere I can think of. My best guess is he is at the station."**_

Arthur's mind raced. Why did they want Vlad? Vlad hadn't said that they had threatened him, but judging by his demand for protection, it made sense.

 _ **"Talk Mr. Kirkland. We can hear you too."**_

The North could hear him. The North had known about the operation for Thursday. The North had cameras. That meant that his team hadn't rated him out. Maybe there was no informant in the police.

 _ **"We are willing to make a deal with you."**_

There hadn't been a ransom note for Peter. Arthur slowly sat down at his desk and cleared his throat,"What sort of deal?" He spoke softly and scanned the room. It he was the North, where would he put a camera? Where would there be a vantage point where he could see the whole room?

 _ **"You want Peter back?"**_

"Of course." Arthur forced his voice to not crack. There. Above the bookcase, that's where he would put the camera.

 _ **"Do you want to catch us?"**_

"Yes."

 _ **"We would like to talk to you Mr. Kirkland."**_

Arthur felt his heart quicken. Please let this be about the ransom.

 _ **"There is a warehouse on the far end of the city. It is the only blue warehouse in that area."**_

"Will you have Peter?"

 _ **"We want you to bring all the files containing information against us. You understand that we will be watching you and will know if you miss something."**_

Arthur looked at the ground and swallowed, "I understand." He hoped they couldn't see his expression. He hoped they couldn't see the hate written in his every pore. Like hell he was bring them the evidence just to hand it over. Like hell he was.

 _ **"We will expect you in one hour."**_

Arthur closed his eyes and tried not to smile. This was perfect. They wanted to bring the war to them? Okay fine, he could play that game. One hour? They wanted him to be short on time. That was fine, he could handle this. He could go on the offensive for real now.

In the blue warehouse, four men sat and waited. They knew Arthur would call the police the moment he thought he was out of range of their cameras. They knew men like Arthur and they understood what made men like Arthur tick. Arthur would come looking for blood, backed by a fleet of officers. They knew this. Still, they sat and waited.

This was something they were good at. All criminals had to be patient if they wanted to survive. The hasty messed up and made mistakes. They weren't making anymore mistakes. The North knew what they had to do and there was nothing Arthur was going to do to mess up their plans.

It was impossible. Arthur was a key figure in what they needed to do, after all. Arthur was a good guy and good guys were predictable. The North were the bad guys and bad guys kept the story interesting. They knew what they were doing.

They had been up all night talking about it and this was the solution they had come up with that solved all of thier problems. They had voted and everyone had agreed.

A phone rang. The cheerful ringtone echoing around the almost totally empty warehouse.

There was a sigh, "Who's is that?"

"Sorry! Mine!"

"I thought I told you to leave it at home."

"Can I answer it?"

"Fine. Then smash it."

"Hello?" There was a soft laugh, "Oh, hi Peter. Sure, you can order pizza, there is a twenty in the third drawer of the bathroom, that should cover it. What? No, don't get bread sticks, you'll never finish them all. Okay, fine."

"Tell him I said hi."

"Berwald says hi! Peter says hi back! What's that? No, there should be milk in the fridge." He covered the mouth piece of the phone, "Berwald? Did you buy more milk?"

"No."

"Oh, sorry Peter, no milk, but there should be some juice concentrate in the freezer."

"There isn't."

"Take that back! Berwald said there isn't. Well, you can always drink water. Water isn't going to kill you! Okay, bye. No ice cream before you go to bed! Bye!" There was a click as he hung up the phone.

There was another sigh, "He's a good kid."

"He trusts us too much."

"You kidding me? He's crazy about you two! He loves you guys and he barely met you!"

"He's too good of a kid."

"Smash your phone before you forget."

"Right." The phone hit the concrete floor and shattered, sending pieces skittering off in all directions. "You owe me a new phone."

"Fine, whatever."

"I want the same phone number though."

"Yeah. I think we can manage that."

"Should we sweep all that up?"

"Why bother?"

"Our signature is leaving the crime scene spotless, we should go out with a bang."

There was a chuckle, "Going out with a bang! Literally!"

One of them got up and started sweeping. "Why are you so morbid?"

"Hey, I'm the one who gets to do all the dirty work, so you have no right to complain!"

"West told me you put on a little show for Arthur earlier today, Norge."

"Yes."

"He said he was impressed."

"Why?"

"He didn't think you had it in you."

"It's not his job to know what we are capable of. It's his job to keep us out of jail."

"Then why are we making his job so hard right now?"

"You're not having second thoughts."

"I wouldn't call them second thoughts, just that maybe we overlooked something. Maybe we don't have to be here."

"We don't have to be here, you're right. We could leave another earpiece and talk to Arthur without it being recorded by the police."

"We could, but there would be no guarantee he actually lets Emil go for good."

"We talked about this last night."

There was a sigh, "I know. Sorry. Nerves I guess."

"No time to back out now. The police are starting to arrive."

 **So, this chapter is much later and shorter than usual, sorry! School started and is sucking up all of my time! Hope you like it!**

 **As Always, Thank You to my Reviewers!**


	15. Chapter 15

Arthur slammed his shoulder against the metal door and shoved it open. The door barely gave and he slammed into it again earning screech as metal ground against metal. Arthur was able to get it open enough for him to slide through and didn't bother closing it. He peered into the warehouse warily and slowly walked in. At first, it seemed empty, then as his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, he made out three figures sitting at a table in the middle of the room. Arthur walked toward them slowly and saw that they seemed to be playing cards.

"You are either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid." One of the men said softly, "I haven't decided which yet."

"Are those two things mutually exclusive?" Arthur asked, keeping his tone careful and light. All three were dressed in black with ski masks over their faces. Arthur glanced at their hands, expecting to see gloves, but all three handled the cards bare handed. Their finger prints probably covered those cards.

"I've found that they are." The speaker turned and looked at Arthur with a pair of ice blue eyes, stopping Arthur in his approach, "I haven't decided if I like you yet either."

"I don't like you, if that helps." Arthur said, unable to keep his tone pleasant now. He scowled at the three figures, "Where's Peter?"

"What's with all the police surrounding the building?" Another of the men asked, not looking up but putting down a card on the table. "That's not cool, man."

"You took my little brother, did you seriously expect me to come alone?" Arthur snapped, he felt his hand twitch toward his gun, but resisted. The police outside could hear everything he was saying, his own ear piece allowed them to hear him and he would be able to hear them if needed.

"Dude, people don't kidnap kids for a reason. Kidnapping is wrong and ridiculously risky." The man said, drawing a card from the deck.

"Then why did you?" Arthur snapped. They were acting so nonchalant about this. Didn't they know that this was game over for them?

"You know why." The blue eyed man said, his gaze never leaving Arthur.

"Emil?" The three didn't react, but their silence was enough of an answer, "Tell me where Peter is."

"You really aren't in the position to be making demands."

Arthur frowned, "Pardon?" Suddenly, there was a flicker of movement and he looked down. A bright red dot was hovering over his heart.

Arthur looked up and saw a fourth man sitting comfortably an iron beam that served as a rafter for the warehouse. Like the others, he was dressed in black and wore a ski mask, unlike the others, he held a rifle that was trained on Arthur.

Arthur's eyes locked with a pair of sky blue ones that belonged to the rifleman. No sniper would ever miss at this distance. No one holding a gun at a person with that much ease would ever miss.

"You have no idea how luck you are." The rifleman said, "I always wanted a brother."

"Pardon?" Arthur said again, unable to break eye contact with the man.

"Do you know what Peter's favorite color is?" The man asked.

"Green." Arthur said slowly.

"Wrong. Blue like the sky and the sea." The man said. "Do you know where Allistor works?"

"He's a sales associate at-"

"Wrong, he got a promotion. Do you even remember him telling you about it?"

Arthur stared at the man. Allistor had a promotion? What? Why did the guy with the gun know or care? All Arthur needed to do was stall while the police outside got into a good position to come into the warehouse.

"He's worst than I thought." One of the men at the table said with a sigh.

"You're thinking about yourself right now." The rifleman said, ignoring the man at the table, "You're thinking about how much your life is worth to me and how much longer you have to live it."

Arthur couldn't think of what to say. Anyone with a gun being pointed at them would be thinking that.

"Have you ever thought about how much you have missed? You ignore your brothers who adore you, you are so wrapped up in yourself and what you are doing that you are missing life, Mr. Kirkland!" The man's voice cracked, and those eyes looked away for a moment before locking onto Arthur again.

"I don't see what-" Arthur started, but those eyes narrowed.

"You don't see what my point is?" He hissed, "You don't see? That's because you are still thinking about you! Who do you think we are thinking about? Who do you think we are doing this for?"

Emil. Arthur slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He moved deliberately, but made sure the sniper could see everything. When Arthur finally dialed and put the phone to his ear, at least a minute had passed.

"Hello?"

"Alfred. You are to drop whatever it is you're doing and take Emil to his home." Arthur said.

"What? I don't know where he lives!" Alfred whined, but Arthur barley heard him.

"I'm sure that he can direct you there." Arthur said, "Release him on my authority."

"Yes, but-"

Arthur hung up and slowly put the phone back in his pocket. "Happy?"

"You're still thinking of you." The sniper said and sighed, "You just don't learn."

Arthur watched the man's hand tighten, the finger twitched.

Those eyes slide away from Arthur and down to the three men playing cards. He was looking for something. The one man was still staring at Arthur while the other two ignored him. The man slowly looked up at the sniper.

Arthur could see the conversation. The sniper was looking for permission. That finger tightened. Arthur swallowed and watched the two blue eyed men look at each other. His life was in their hands. The sniper's gaze returned to Arthur, eyes cold.

"What do you have worth living for, Mr. Kirkland?" The sniper asked, his voice sharp and soft.

Arthur looked at the barrel of the gun. What did he have worth living for? His job. Something told him that this was the wrong answer.

"What do you have worth living for?" Arthur said slowly, "You shoot me and you are still going to prison."

"There would be one less useless person on the planet." The sniper replied evenly. Out of the corner of his eye, Arthur saw the other blue eyed man look sharply at the sniper.

"Be polite." The man said and turned back to the card game.

Again, the sniper's eyes left Arthur and went down to the people around the table. Arthur looked toward the metal door. He would never run fast enough for a trained rifleman. Then again, maybe this guy was-

"Don't think so little of my ability." The sniper said, his tone almost mild, "You wouldn't get three feet."

Arthur looked up, the sniper wasn't even looking at him and he was that confident?

"You said you wanted to talk." Arthur said, "What do you want?"

"All the evidence you have on us." The last man at the table said, "You didn't bring it."

Arthur looked at the sniper, who met his gaze. "So what now? Police have this place locked down and you have me at gunpoint. Is this going how you planned."

The sniper smiled, "Pretty much."

Arthur frowned. They had no escape and they were threatening him. What did they have up their sleeve? "What now?"

That smile remained. "How long would it take for the police to get in here after I pull the trigger?"

Emil stared out of the car window and sighed. He didn't know what was going on because Alfred didn't know. The landscape wizzed passed him and he didn't see it. Alfred had showed up to the cell and told him that he was free. Just like that. Had Ludwig gotten his charges removed? Had Ludwig gotten them to realize that holding an innocent child was illegal? Alfred knew nothing.

"Sorry little dude, but it's on Arthur's authority." Alfred said again, "Where do I turn again?"

Emil looked up and glanced at Alfred, the car zipped by the turn and Emil turned around and looked at it. He pointed, "It was that one." His voice was monotone without him trying to make it so. He was so tired of all this. All he wanted was to be home.

"Oh! Sorry!" There was a squeal of brakes and Alfred turned down the next road, "Can we get there from here?"

"Yes." Emil looked forward again and pointed at a fast approaching intersection, "Turn left up here."

"Right! You got it!" Alfred said and turned, "Where next?"

"Right up here." Emil said.

"What do I do right up here?"

"Turn."

"Which way?!"

"Right." Emil watched as they passed the his road again, "It was that one."

Alfred let out an exasperated sigh, "I give up! Do you want to drive?"

Emil just looked at Alfred, "No. I'll walk."

"NO!" Alfred yelped and spun the car around and turned down the correct road. Finally.

They pulled up to the house and Emil got out of the car. Lukas's car wasn't in the driveway and the house seemed deserted. However, a small spark of warmth lit in Emil. This was home. His and Lukas's.

"Hey!" Alfred called from the car, "If you need anything, just call, okay?"

"I won't." Emil said softly and walked up to the door, it was unlocked. He went inside without looking back.

The first thing Emil noticed was the quiet. It was a comforting silence that promised security. There was a rush of feathers and suddenly Emil's puffin descended on him. It landed on his head and nuzzled into his hair. Emil laughed and jumped away, dislodging it and sending it up in a fury of squawking and feathers. It circled the room and Emil hurried after it. He offered it an arm and it begrudgingly landed again. He stroked it, running his fingers through it's feathers and giving a sigh of relief. Home. A smile tugged on his lips. He was home.

Emil wandered around the house, noting all the little things that had changed in his absence. The fridge was almost totally empty of beer and it looked like someone had reorganized the books in the living room. Lukas's phone was plugged into the wall and all of Mathias's cloths in the guest bedroom closet were gone. Apart from that, everything seemed the same. Wonderfully so.

Emil finally plopped down on the couch and opened up Lukas's phone. He dialed Mathias. It rang three times before going to voicemail. Emil sighed and tried Tino. Number was not available. Berwald's number rang seven times before going to voicemail. Well, that all made sense. It was a Saturday and Tino probably was working some job as Santa. Mathias was probably off drinking and Berwald . . . . Emil didn't know. Then again, all four of them not answering their phones when they ought to know that Emil had been released was disturbing. The North had probably been using those cameras to keep tabs on him, that was why Berwald wasn't concerned when Emil had called him before Arthur arrested him. Emil leaned back on the couch and looked at the ceiling.

He didn't know where they were. He was worried. He had to find them. They were probably fine. What if they weren't? Emil didn't want to leave. Home made him feel safe. Where were they? Why were all four unavailable? Berwald always picked up. Tino's number was unavailble? What did that mean? Did he break his phone or something? Emil closed his eyes. Everything would be fine. Everything would be fine. Everything was not fine. They would know he had been released, they had cameras, but they weren't contacting him.

Emil got up and walked into the backyard to get his bike. The tires were flat. Lukas's bike's tires were also flat. Emil search the house for a pump and found nothing. There had to be one somewhere.

He know the bike pump existed, but he couldn't find it. That left rollerblading or skateboarding. Emil found only one of his roller blades and his skateboard was totally gone.

Emil's unease was growing. Apparently there were a few differences in the house he hadn't noticed. All of his modes of transportation had been eliminated. Emil wasn't stupid. Lukas didn't want him to leave the house.

Emil pulled out his phone and dialed Leon.

"Hello. What happened with the police?" Leon said the moment he picked up.

"Hi Leon, I need ot borrow your bike." Emil said, ignoring the question, "It's kind of important."

"You have a bike."

"With flat tires."

"I could bring you a pump."

"That would work."

"I'll be there in fifteen."

"Thanks."

Leon hung up. Emil sat back and sighed. Lukas didn't want him leaving the house and hadn't left a note. Why?

Half an hour after Leon rode up on his bike, Emil had to admit defeat. His and Lukas's bike tires both had pricks in them. They wouldn't hold air. In the end, Emil and Leon put Emil's pegs on Leon's bike and they started off in the direction of Leon's house, Emil standing on the pegs.

"You can borrow my sister's bike, she never uses it." Leon said and nudged the bike on the ground with his foot.

"Thanks, I owe you one." Emil said and picked it up, "I'll return it tomorrow."

"Who says I'm just letting you waltz off with my sister's bike?" Leon said, going back over to his own bike and getting on. "I'm going with you, where ever it is that you're going."

Emil frowned at Leon, "Why?"

"Because you are acting weird and if you hurt that bike, my sister is going to kill me." Leon replied evenly.

Emil sighed, "Fine."

He mounted the bike and took off. First to check Mathias's house, then Tino's, then Berwald's, then he'd better check the mall in case Lukas had work today. Maybe Mathias had taken everyone to the bar. In the middle of the day on Saturday? Unlikely. If no one was to be found, he had one option left.

Emil glanced over his shoulder at Leon. No. He couldn't check the North's safe house with Leon following him. Ah well, he would just have to hope he found someone before it came to that.

 **I know Emil's section has a totally opposite feeling than Arthur's, but I think it turned out well. Hope you like it!**


	16. Chapter 16

Arthur couldn't look away from those blue eyes. How long would it take the police to get here? It wouldn't matter for him, he would already be dead, that much was for sure. However, would it be long enough for these four to somehow escape?

No. How could they? Arthur had to force his way into the building and that seemed to be the only door. No, there was a roll up door to let trucks into the warehouse and a back door facing away from the road. The North were trapped. How were they going to escape? Besides, killing him would do them no good.

The rifleman smiled. It was a nice, almost childlike smile. Arthur might have thought it an innocent had the man not been holding a gun at him. Arthur saw the fingre twitch, tighten.

There was a flicker at the table, one of the men slammed his cards down with a thud that echoed through the warehouse.

The rifleman froze and looked down. Arthur followed his gaze and saw the man looking up at the rifleman.

"I win." The man said, his voice gravelly and passionless, but it rang through the warehouse with an authority that surprised Arthur. For a moment, all was still as the echo died away.

"Damn it!" One of the other men said and dropped his cards to the table as well. The last man, the blue eyed one, only nodded his head in defeat and showed the others his hand.

Slowly, the other two men looked up at the rifleman. Arthur didn't understand what significance the man winning was, but the rifleman's stance changed. The smile fell away and those eyes grew cold once again.

"Ddddaaaaammmmmnnnnn iiiiiiitttttt!" One of the men at the table whined, slouching down in his chair, "Can't we play again?"

"Shut up and take your defeat like an adult." The blue eyed man said mildly and glanced over his shoulder at Arthur, "It looks like it's your lucky day Mr. Kirkland."

Arthur glanced up at the rifleman. The gun was still level with Arthur and those eyes seemed to stare into his soul with a chilling determination. Arthur felt his breath catch in his throat. He was going to die. At least the police would catch these guys and murder would give them at least a life sentence if not the death sentence. He was going to die. This was it. Arthur Kirkland's story was over without him every really accomplishing anything. He wished he could at least have done something imporant in his life. Of course, dying so the police could catch a group of criminals was important, but it wasn't the sort of important Arthur had been hopping for.

The rifleman narrowed his eyes, then sighed and closed them. He seemed to slouch back inot himself and when he opened his eyes again, Arthur saw something he couldn't describe. It was a mixture of sadness and something Arthur didn't recognize. The rifleman lowered his gun and smiled at Arthur again.

The rifleman laid the gun down beside him and swung his legs over the beams so they dangled down and he put his hands up in the air, "Okay, you caught us."

Arthur choked. For a moment, his legs couldn't support him, but he regained his composure and proceeded to stare at the men. This wasn't right. The North didn't just give up. Did they? "You are the North, correct?"

The men looked at one another in surprise then back to Arthur and they nodded.

"And you want me to arrest you?

"Excuse me? You said you wanted to catch us." The blue eyed man seemed to frown, "Let's be perfectly clear, we have four escape routes right now. Killing you would take that down to two, however Sweden won and Sweden wanted to let you live."

"That leaves two escape routes you aren't using." Arthur said, keeping his tone as emotionless as he could.

"Jeez! You said you wanted to catch us, didn't you?" One of the other men snapped, "Hurry up and arrest us before we change our mind!"

Arthur's mind race. There had to be a trick here. Why would they willingly turn themselves in? What was thier game?

"Where is Peter?"

Almost as one, the North sighed.

"Dude! Are you going to arrest us or not?" The man snapped again, "My patience is starting to run thin!"

Arthur stared at the four, his eyes darting between them searching for some sign he had missed. Anything really.

 _"People don't kidnap kids for a reason. Kidnapping is wrong and ridiculously risky."_

Arthur's eyes widened. He understood. The North came here, invited him here, knowing he was bring the police, all because that was what they wanted. This was it for them. Everything was going according to plan.

Arthur removed his ear piece and turned it off. A strange respect nagged in the back of his mind. It wasn't like he trusted these guys, but the seething hate had died down. He looked at the earpiece for a moment before looking up at the North again. They truly were the best at this game. However, Arthur knew, that this was a game he didn't totally understand.

"You came here with the intention of being arrested." Arthur spoke softly and slowly, he watched them and knew he was right, "You never intended to kill me."

At that, the rifleman laughed, "No, we just couldn't agree on it. The deal was if Sweden or Norway won, you lived since that was what they wanted. A draw or Denmark winning and you would die since that was what me and him wanted. You are a detail, we would have been arrested either way."

"You don't have to go explaining our life to the guy, Finland!"

"Denmark. Be polite."

"You shut up too!"

There was a flurry of movement as the smaller man spun on Denmark, grabbing his collar and one leg whipping behind him and slamming into the back of his knees, making him tumble forward. Denmark hit the concrete hard and the blue eyed man planted his foot firmly in Denmark's back. Denmark groaned but didn't struggle.

A silence followed the few second of movement and the blue eyed man looked up at Arthur, "Arthur, I need you to arrest us now. I'm sure you have questions, but it is in all of our best interests that you spend as little time in here alone with us and your ear piece off. Your superiors have little confidence in you and will have all the more reason to distrust you now. I need this case to stay in your hands."

Arthur looked at the four men. Two wanted him dead, two didn't and they all wanted to be arrested. The fact that Finland still had the rifle was unnerving and that Finland had been among the two who wanted to kill him. Still, Finland seemed content to go along with the deal. This left the problem of Peter. They were turning themselves in and there were four of them. Five counting Emil, but that meant there were no North loose keeping Peter hostage, right? Were there more than five North? What was Arthur missing?

Arthur drew his gun and pointed it at them. His body acted without his consent and his mind screamed that there was something wrong with this picture, he just didn't know what it was, "You are under arrest for threatening and holding another at gun point and you are under suspicion of being the criminal group the North. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right . . . "

The North made no effort to resist arrest.

Emil exited the mall and sighed. Lukas had asked for two weeks vacation and gotten it. No one had seen him in days. Next stop, Mathias's. Tino's apartment had been empty and it had looked like it had been empty for a few days as well. Even Hana, Tino's dog, was absent. Emil didn't like breaking into Tino's house, but he didn't have the key and he had been hoping to find Tino's phone or something. Plus, he knew Tino didn't have a security system. Which made sense given Tino's views on security systems. He was of the opinion that they were useless, and up against him, he was right.

Leon hadn't actually asked any questions yet, but Emil could practically feel Leon yelling them at him. Emil knew that Leon's opinion of him was probably in the dirt by now. Breaking into Tino's house probably confirmed all the little suspicions that had popped up when Emil was arrested.

Emil didn't look at Leon as he mounted the bike and wordlessly started off again. It wouldn't be weird that everyone was at Mathias's house. So that was the next stop. Leon was probably going to call the police again and turn him in for breaking into Tino's apartment. Emil sighed and hunched his shoulders. At least he wasn't stuck in that wretched cell still. There was a terrifying helplessness in being imprisoned that he didn't feel now. Sure, he was still in the dark and didn't know what the North were up to, but he was able to do something about it.

"Emil. I'm really worried about you." Leon said, pedaling up beside Emil, "Do you want to talk?"

"Have I ever wanted to talk?" Emil asked, trying not to sound hostile, "Do you expect me to spill my feeling to you or something?"

Leon shrugged, "No, I just thought I'd let you know I'm here for you."

"Wow you're sentimental today."

Leon shrugged again and they lapsed into silence once again. Emil sighed again and turned down Mathias's street.

At first he didn't look ahead of him, instead focusing on the ground in from of his bike. He braked and looked up at the apartment complex. There were no lights on in Mathias's window. Then again, it was the middle of the day, it was possible Mathias was home and didn't have the lights on. Emil dropped the bike in front of he building and started up the stairs two at a time.

Emil knocked on the door and listened for any sign of movement from within. Leon silently followed him and stood behind like a shadow. There was no need to break into Mathias's house, Emil knew where he hid his spare key. After retrieving it from the bird house hanging out over the under hang of the apartment above them, Emil unlocked the door and entered.

The house was chaos. As usual. Mathias never was one for cleaning like Lukas and Emil were, so his house looked like a constant war zone. Emil wander the house, not sure what he was looking for and finally pulled out his phone and dialed Mathias's number. He heard the phone ring from somewhere in Mathias's room and had to call twice before he located it.

He opened it up and checked the recant calls. Three were from him, but the next one was Lukas's number. Emil opened Mathias's texts and was surprised to see his inbox and outbox empty.

Next to find Mathias's computer. Emil cast an eye around the room. That would take too long. He wished he could dial the computer and have it ring to tell him it's location. Maybe he would skip on the laptop and head over to Berwald's house.

If they weren't at Berwald's, he wouldn't be able to break in to find a phone or anything. Berwald's security system was the best there was. Nothing got into or out of Berwald's house without him knowing about it. Nothing. Probably not even Tino. Well, maybe not. Nah, Tino could probably break into Berwald's house.

Emil and Leon walked back to the bikes in silence. Leon's phone burst into song.

Leon took out his phone and looked at it like it was the plague.

"What?" He said the moment he answered, "No."

Emil watched Leon's face and could barley hear the buzz of another voice at the other end of the line. Leon was silent and his face settled into a look of annoyance.

"No." Leon said again and his face grew dark, "I can't. No, I really can't. I just can't."

Emil leaned on the bike and glanced around the street, it was strangely quiet for the ending of a Saturday.

"Why?" Leon snapped, then sighed, "Fine." and he hung up, "I have to go home. Drop the bike off in the morning, if you can."

Emil nodded, "Okay."

"We need to talk."

Emil shrugged, "It's all good."

That look of annoyance didn't change, "Lie."

Leon mounted his bike and started off. Emil watched him go before taking off in the opposite direction. No Leon meant a little more freedom. He didn't have to hold himself back from pedaling as fast as he could. He did't have to act like he was calm. He didn't have to worry about what Leon thought.

Leon was his best friend and Emil was pretty sure that this afternoon, along with him being arrested, had destroyed that. Oh well, a worry for tomorrow. Today, he need to find Lukas and the others. He needed to find out what happened. Then he could mend fences with Leon.

It occurred to Emil that he already knew what happened. The North kidnapped Peter. Like the idiots that they were. So, where was Peter?

 **Lots of disjointedness! I hope you like this chapter, it was a pain to write!**

 **Thank you so much to my reviewers! I love you!**


	17. Chapter 17

Arthur sat across the table from Lukas and tried to think of what to say. Lukas was Norway. That was one of the most disturbing discoveries of the day. Arthur fancied himself pretty good at reading people and he had thought that he had a good grasp on Lukas. He had thought Lukas was the victim, trying to deal with Emil's mistakes and doing his best to support the two of them. Lukas had seemed sympathetic to Arthur after learning about Peter's kidnapping. Seeing Lukas in front of him now, dressed all in black and wearing hand cuffs, was unsettling. Lukas was Norway. Furthermore, Norway had been one of the North who had NOT wanted to kill Arthur. Yet, it was Lukas's little brother that Arthur had arrested. Arthur vividly remembered his hate for the North. It was still present, it was just less of a raging fire and more of a smoldering ember waiting for a good wind to make it roar to life again. He had wanted to chop the North into little pieces for taking Peter. He had taken Emil from Lukas, and had imagined Lukas having similar feelings towards him. Yet, Lukas was advocating for letting Arthur live.

"Your lawyer is on his way." Arthur said finally and glanced at the cuffs that encircled Lukas's wrists again, "Is there anything you would like to say before he gets here?"

Lukas looked at Arthur was the same intensity he had in the warehouse, his eyes unreadable and unforgiving and they seemed to pin Arthur in his chair, "I want to know how you knew beyond a doubt that Emil was guilty."

Arthur forced himself to not flinch. He knew Lukas must hate him, he just wasn't sure why Lukas wanted him alive, "It wasn't hard. Emil is just too good of a kid, his guilt was written in his every feature."

"He's just too good of a kid?"

"Yes."

Lukas gave a small sigh and looked down at the handcuffs, "Are these necessary?"

"I'm afraid so." Arthur said, he didn't trust the North, even here in the offices, surrounded by police, Arthur expected the North to pull some trick and escape, "Can you answer a few of my questions?"

Lukas didn't budge, he sat there like a statue. Those eyes locked on the handcuffs and his face blank.

"How did the North break into that bank and re lock the vault?" Arthur asked.

For a moment, Lukas made no sign that he had heard, but he slowly looked up at Arthur again. "Locking is what vaults are made to do." Lukas said blandly, "It wasn't hard."

Arthur rubbed his temple and nodded, "Okay, why did you turn yourselves in?"

"Insurance." Lukas said.

"Pardon?"

"Insurance." Lukas said again, "Us being here is our insurance."

"Insurance for what?" Arthur asked, a pit forming in his gut.

Lukas just looked at him with those emotionless blue eyes, "When is my lawyer getting here?"

Arthur sighed. Again, if Lukas was going to stop talking, there was nothing Arthur could do about it. At this point. As soon as he got the paperwork in and Lukas's lawyer got here, he would be able to question Lukas much further, but until then he was at the mercy of what Lukas wanted to tell him. Arthur nodded to Lukas and stood.

"One of my men will stay with you until your lawyer gets here." Arthur said and opened the door of the room and motioned Alfred inside, "You will have some time to speak with your lawyer alone, then we would like to talk to you about the North."

Lukas looked at Alfred as he entered with disinterest, "Very well. Please know that my lawyer will be representing my comrades as well."

"Thank you for letting us know." Arthur said, that didn't pose much of a problem for him, "You have one call available to you, if you choose to use it."

Lukas's gaze returned to Arthur, "Who would I call?"

Arthur blinked in surprise. Emil. Who else? Arthur was sure that Emil would appreciate a call at least. Lukas just looked at Arthur, so Arthur shrugged, "It is available to you if you want it."

Arthur nodded to Alfred and turned and left. There were three other interviews he had to finish before that lawyer got here. There was no guarantee that they would talk to him, but it was worth a try.

The rifleman was a man named Tino Väinämöinen. His interview wasn't much better than Lukas. He sat there and smiled at Arthur with a smug look.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Väinämöinen. I just wanted to ask you a few questions." Arthur said, sitting down across from Tino and glanced at the handcuffs. The handcuffs were sitting on the table, with Tino's hands folded next to them. A spike of fear raced through Arthur, how did he get un-cuffed? Arthur stood, maybe a little too hastily and walked around the table to Tino.

Tino clearly knew what Arthur wanted and he polity offered his wrists to Arthur. Arthur re-cuffed Tino with a diff rent pair of cuffs and put the pair that he unlocked into his pocket. Arthur returned to his seat and cleared his throat. The whole transaction had happened silently and Tino was back to smiling at him, his hands folded on the table.

"Why did you turn yourselves in?" Arthur asked. Tino didn't have a gun on him, but the idea of being alone with the rifleman was unsettling, even if Arthur was the one armed.

Tino smiled and shrugged, "Hey, just be glad Mathias didn't win."

"Why did you turn yourselves in?" Arthur repeated.

"We talked about it, and this seemed to be the best course of action." Tino said and sat back in his chair, "We voted on it and it was unanimous."

"But why?"

"It was the best thing to do."

"I don't believe that you are telling me you had a moral epiphany and decided to repent for your sins, so you turned yourself in." Arthur's tone was perfectly flat and dry.

Tino laughed, "If we wanted to repent for our sins, we would have gone to a church, not you!"

"Where is Peter?"

Tino's smile broadened, "Happy. Safe. Content. He had the ability to leave at any time."

Arthur ground his teeth, "Where is he?"

"Hey, when you find the cameras in the your team's office, can you give them back to me?" Tino asked, "They were really expensive."

"Will you tell me where to look?" Arthur growled.

"No." Tino laughed and calmly folded his handcuffs and offered them back to Arthur. His hands free, "Then you would use them as evidence against us!"

Arthur stared at the handcuffs. Arthur had been sitting here the whole time and hadn't noticed Tino take them off. Arthur got up again, re-cuffed Tino, and left, setting Gilbert as a guard at the door of the room.

Mathias turned out to be a member of the North as well. After learning about Lukas being Norway, Mathias as Denmark didn't seem that strange. However, Mathias was the definition of "uncooperative".

"Dude, I hate your guts and would have shot you regardless of whether Swede won or not!" Mathias hissed and leaned across the table, "Just be happy I wasn't the one holding the gun!"

"Why did you turn yourselves in?" Arthur fought to keep his tone at least neutral and found himself sounding angrier than Mathias.

"Because we're the good guys!" Mathias growled, "Haven't you figured that out yet?"

"Who hired the North to break into the bank?" Arthur asked, not even looking at Mathias.

"Like hell I'm going to tell you! There's this thing called professional pride!" Mathias sat back in his chair and glowered at Arthur, "LIKE HELL I'M TALKING TO YOU!"

Mathias's interview was the shortest. However, Mathias was at least responding to questions. The last member of the North, a man named Berwald Oxenstierna, didn't say a word.

"I'm going to ask you a few questions." Arthur started, trying to keep the other three interviews in the back of his mind.

Berwald looked at Arthur stonily. His face emotionless.

"Why did you turn yourselves in?" Arthur stared.

Berwald looked at Arthur unchanging.

"How did you break into the bank?"

Berwald looked at Arthur.

"Who hired you to break into the bank?"

Berwald looked at Arthur.

"Where is Peter?"

Berwald blinked slowly and said nothing.

Arthur gave up. These guys were either insane or geniuses, that or Arthur was a total idiot. Arthur wanted to go home and get drunk. Really, really drunk.

Arthur sat at his desk and glared at the black computer screen. He still had a job to do. They were a private detective agency, they were hired by individuals who wanted something specific. Just catching the North would be enough for the police, but the agency had been hired to recover a family heirloom stolen from a wealthy family's summer home. That was the end goal here for Arthur. Then the North and their information would be turned over to the police and he would be assigned to a new case. Get the heirloom.

And Peter. He had to get Peter back. He was being paid to get that heirloom, but what he wanted was Peter.

Emil pedaled up Berwald's driveway and leaned the bike up against the little porch rail. There was no way he could break into Berwald's house without setting off an alarm. Then again, maybe setting off an alarm would contact Berwald for him. Setting off an alarm would force the other North to acknowledge him. Setting off an alarm seemed so wrong.

Maybe he should just knock.

No answer.

Figures.

Emil sat down on the porch and leaned his back against the door. This was ridiculous. Who was he kidding? They had been arrested. Peter had escaped, or they let him go, and were arrested.

Emil pulled out his phone and looked at it. No point calling Lukas's phone, it was at home. He had Mathias's phone. He could try Tino again.

Unavailable.

What did that even mean? That left Berwald.

The phone rang and went to voicemail. Emil hung up. He might as well go back to Arthur. At least then he might be able to see everyone. Emil stared at his phone and numbly pulled Mathias's out of his pocket. They both had the same style case, just Emil's was blue, white, and red, while Mathias's was just red and white. Might as well turn himself in. Emil opened up Mathias's phone and scrolled through his contacts. Confessing would probably lessen his sentence. Emil found Berwald's number and hit send. He didn't bother raising it to his ear, he already knew what would happen.

It would ring and go to voicemai-

"Hello? Mathias?"

Emil nearly dropped the phone. That was NOT Berwald. Emil knew that voice, it was almost as if he was sitting here with Emil, it was so clear.

"Peter?" Emil choked into the phone.

"Emil? Why do you have Mathias's phone?"

"Peter? Is this you?"

"Yeah, where's Mathias?"

"Why do you have Berwald's phone?"

"Hey! I asked first!"

"I'm not telling you til you tell me."

"Well, I'm not telling you!"

Emil sighed, "Fine, I got Mathias's phone from his house."

"What? Did you just take it?" Peter asked skeptically.

"Yes." Emil said slowly, unsure of what Peter's point was.

"YOU STOLE MATHIAS'S PHONE?" Peter shrieked, "WHY?"

Emil winced and held the phone away from his ear, "Because he wasn't there and I though-Hey! Why did you answer the phone when you thought it was Mathias and you wouldn't answer with me?"

Peter gave a nervous laugh, "What are you talking about?"

"You answered when Berwald's phone showed Mathias's ID, but not when it would have shown mine! Why?" Emil could hear his voice getting higher in pitch and didn't care. He already knew the answer. Lukas hadn't wanted him to leave home, Peter answered the phone when he thought it was Mathias, they were all hiding something from him.

"Well, it's just that-"

"PETER!"

"I'm sorry!" Peter said quickly, his words spilling out of him, "I don't know why! Berwald told me not to answer the phone if it was from you! And I'm not supposed to answer the door or-"

"You're at Berwald's house?" Emil hissed.

There was a soft click and the door swung open, Emil fell back and looked up at a very red-faced Peter.

Peter and Emil sat crossed from each other at the kitchen table and said nothing. Peter set out a plate of cookies and got each of them a glass of water.

Emil could see that Peter had made himself right at home and acted almost as though he lived here. Emil could also see that Peter was alone. None of the North were here. Exept Emil.

Emil took a cookie and bit into it. Where were they? They must be at the safe house. Emil couldn't believe that Peter would be here, at Berwald's, if the North had gotten arrested.

"Do you know where Berwald and Tino are?" Peter asked tentatively, his voice soft and his eyes scanned the room, as if trying to avoid looking at Emil.

"No." Emil said, "Sorry. I came here looking for them."

"So, Lukas and Mathias are gone too?" Emil stared at Peter. He was too sincere. Peter was really concerned. Peter actually cared. He was so weird.

"You know they kidnapped you, right?" Emil asked, face blank and tone flat.

Peter nodded and smiled, "Yeah, I know, but they're good people. They really didn't want to kidnap me, but they still treated me like I was one of the family."

"Oh? What did you do?" Emil asked without really caring. He just wanted to know where they were.

"We played chess and checkers and Tino and I made cookies and Berwald showed me how his security system worked and Mathias played basketball with me and Lukas and I played chess and-"

"Cool. When did you last see them?"

Peter shrugged, "Berwald and Tino left really early this morning and I saw Mathias and Lukas last night. I called Tino around lunch time."

Emil looked up in surprise, "Did he answer?"

"Yeah, he answered." Peter said with a shrug, "I can call him again if you want."

"Please." Emil said quickly.

Peter pulled Berwald's phone out of his pocket and dialed Tino.

Number unavailable.

Emil sighed. It was worth a try. Peter shrugged.

"Do you want to stay the night here?" Peter asked, "Even if you leave now, you won't get home until after dark."

Emil was tempted to say yes, but there was a chance that when he got home, Lukas would be there. Lukas would scold him for being out after dark and then they would sit down to dinner. There was a chance Mathias would come over and they'd play cards.

Emil didn't want to get his hopes up only to be dashed again, but there was a chance. So, he shook his head and sighed.

"No thank you." Emil said then stopped and looked Peter over. The boy was relaxed and didn't seem as high strung as usual, "Peter? Why are you still here?"

"What do you mean?" Peter asked, blinking and taking a cookie from the plate.

"Why haven't you gone home? You were kidnapped." Emil said.

Peter shrugged, "I don't know. I don't really want to go home. It's nice here and if anything, I feel more at home here than at home." Peter smiled and bit into his cookie, "It might sound weird, but I almost feel like I belong here."

"You should go home. I'm sure Allistor and Arthur are worried sick about you." Emil said and slumped back in his chair. He hoped Lukas was worried about him.

"Allistor probably is, but Arthur has been so scattered lately, I'm sure he forgets I'm missing." Peter said uncaringly, "They'll be fine. It's not like they need me."

The North needed Emil. They needed someone to censor them, to keep them thinking clearly. Emil stood, "I'd better get going. I'll drop by tomorrow, okay? Can you call me if Berwald comes home?"

Peter nodded and smiled, "He said he might be late today and that I'm supposed to go to bed early."

"Whatever." Emil took another cookie and walked out to the bike. Peter stood in the doorway and waved as Emil took off. He wouldn't be able to make it to the safe house before dark either and he didn't want to spend the night there. Might as well head home.

There was a chance, Lukas was waiting for him.

 **Been ridiculously busy! Sorry! This chapter isn't the best, but it gets the idea.**

 **Quick question: has anyone figured out the North's plan yet? Just wondering!**

 **Thanks for the continued support!**


	18. Chapter 18

Emil didn't remember falling asleep, but waking up suggested that he did. He was laying on the couch. That's right. He had been waiting for Lukas to come home. A quick jog through the house told him that Lukas still hadn't come home. Emil checked the clock. 4:00 AM.

Emil went up stairs and took a shower, he got dressed and headed down stairs for a breakfast of toast. Finally, he went out and got Leon's sister's bike. It was early enough to get to the North's warehouse and back to return the bike without raising any more concern in Leon. Before he set off, Emil ran back inside and filled a backpack with licorice, his, Lukas and Mathias's phones, and his and Lukas's earpieces. He added an extra jacket since it was looking overcast and an umbrella.

The road was empty and Emil made good time to Berwald's. He knocked and the door was almost immediately answered by Peter. Peter was still wearing the same cloths from yesterday and didn't look like he had slept much.

"Did Lukas not come home?" Peter asked the moment the door was open.

"No." Emil said, peering around Peter into the dark house, "What about Berwald?"

"No. He didn't come back and Tino didn't either and they won't answer their phones and I don't know what to do!" Peter's words spilled out of him and he looked about ready to cry, "Emil! What do I do?"

Emil sighed. What to do? Emil wasn't even sure what he was going to do. "You'd better go home. We both have school tomorrow and your brothers must miss you."

"I don't want to go home! I don't want to go to school!" Peter wailed, "I want to know where Berwald and Tino are!"

"And I want to know where Lukas and Mathias are. I don't want to go to school either and I don't want to ever step out of my house again." Emil said, his tone flat, "But I have to. I can't just sit back and wait."

Peter's eyes grew wide and the tears threatened to fall, but the blonde boy blinked it back, "Please! I want to help!"

Emil turned and walked back to the bike, "No. Go home Peter. I'll call you if I find them."

"Let me come with you!" Peter called, chasing after Emil.

"No." Emil said and started off, "Go home Peter!"

Emil didn't have to look to know Peter had started to cry. Peter was scared and didn't know what was going on. At least Emil knew about the North and their basic plans, Peter knew nothing. Emil never thought he could feel anything but annoyed toward Peter, but now he wanted to turn around and give Peter a hug. He wanted to explain things and show Peter the safe house. He wanted to help Peter. Emil didn't look back. Emil kept pedelling. Emil left Peter crying on Berwald's driveway.

Maybe that's why he was a bad person.

Emil got to the safe house easily. It was the only blue warehouse in the area.

Emil didn't know how the North had gotten a hold of the warehouse, he only knew that Mathias owned it. Usually, they stored whatever they had stolen here. The only reason they hadn't stored all of the birds there was because birds need to eat and it was easiest to feed them all if they were closer. Plus, since Tino was going to be helping with the transportation of the birds, it only made sense to keep them at his apartment. Sometimes, like when they took the Vargas's trunk, it wasn't worth the effort to drive one trunk all the way out to the warehouse, so Berwald had stored that until the drop off. Anything more than that, they brought here. The roads in this part of town didn't have surveillance cameras and the other warehouses in the area where empty or stored old automobiles.

Plus, their warehouse looked just as empty and unused. Emil pushed his bike to the back of the building and noted all of the crushed grass surrounding the building. There had been a bunch of cars. That wasn't right. The North never drove up on the grass or even all the way up the road. The door to the warehouse was ajar. That wasn't right either. The North never used the door. Emil leaned his bike against the back of the building and pushed one part of the wall open. It was a panel that swung open like a whole portion of the wall was a door. It had probably been used for a forklift entrance when the warehouse was still in use, but now it was the only entrance that the North used. People who knew nothing about warehouses, would never notice this door.

The inside was as spotless as ever except a table was set out near the center of the building. Emil walked cautiously around, his footsteps echoing in the emptiness. There really was no one here. The floor had been swept recently and it felt abnormally cold.

Emil wandered around the interior without a goal. They weren't here. That was clear. They weren't here and Emil was alone. They had been arrested. Emil knew that. Then why did Arthur order his release? Well, it wasn't like he would be hard to find if they needed to arrest him again.

Emil didn't know what to do He could go back to Arthur.

Emil finally sat down at the table and stared at the far wall He felt empty. Why was he even here? He had been deluding himself. When Lukas didn't come home last night, he knew they had been arrested. He knew that they were gone.

Emil's hand found his pocket and he pulled his phone out. Numbly he dialed Lukas's number and listened as it stared to ring. In his backpack. Lukas's phone buzzed, but he let it go to voicemail.

"You've reached Lukas. Sorry I missed you,please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

Emil hung up. He pulled Lukas's and Mathias's phones out of his back pack and laid them on the table. He pulled out the his and Lukas's earpieces and laid them next to the phones. Emil dialed Mathias's number. On the table the phone lite up and a chipper ringtone filled the warehouse.

"Yo! It's Mathias! This is my voicemail, so leave a message!"

Emil hung up. He dialed Tino.

Unavailable.

Emil almost dialed Berwald, but he didn't want to talk to Peter again. He didn't want to know if Peter had gone home yet or not. Emil didn't know what he wanted.

Emil flicked his ear piece on and fitted it to his ear. These were good quality earpieces, there was no static and unless they used the voice distortions, everyone sounded like they did in real life. Emil hadn't brought his distorter. Not that it mattered.

"Hey guys." Emil said softly, "Iceland here. Please answer."

Arthur walked slowly down crossed the room and carefully watched the faces of the North.

"It's Iceland here. Please guys. Reply."

Tino's head hung limply and he stared sightless at the ground.

"Guys. This isn't funny. Reply. I need to know where you are."

Berwald's face was stony and his eyes were locked one the far wall.

"Please. Answer me. Where are you? I need to know."

Mathias was red and he glared at Arthur, "Why are you doing this? It's not like you need a confession or any more evidence against us! Why would you do this?"

"I need you to talk to me and during normal questioning, you were less than cooperative." Arthur said evenly, but somehow, he couldn't meet Mathias's eyes.

"Guys. Please! Where are you? I need to know you're okay!" Emil's voice cracked and for a moment he was silent, "If this is some sick joke, I hate you all! If this isn't, talk to me!"

Lukas was pale. His hands were clenched together so tightly that his knuckles were white and bloodless. His face was blank, but those eyes burned with a hatred that Arthur understood.

"Let me talk to him." Lukas said, his voice unsteady.

"Please tell me where the items you stole from the summer home are." Arthur said.

"We don't know!" Lukas snapped, "We don't know where things go after we get them to the drop off!"

"Who hired you for that job? Where was the drop off?"

Lukas's jaw clenched. His eyes burned into Arthur.

"Please! Where are you! Talk to me!" Emil choked and gave a soft sob, "I have to know you guys are okay!"

"You are a sick twisted person." Mathias growled, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Why are you doing this to him?" Lukas hissed.

"I'm not doing anything to him. You may speak to him if you tell me what I need to know." Arthur said, but part of him agreed. This was wrong. Listening to Emil made Arthur feel like the bad guy for the first time. Still.

Tino lifted his head and smiled at Arthur. It was that same smile he had give Arthur before Berwald won the card game, "I should have shot you. I should have shot your knee caps in first, then your throat so you couldn't even scream. Then I should have let you bleed to death."

Emil seemed unable to talk, but his choked sobs could be heard with crystal clarity.

The North all looked at Arthur. Arthur's throat was tight. Did they seriously think he enjoyed this? Did they seriously think he like this? He had a job to do. He had a little brother too.

"Where the hell is Peter?" Arthur snapped, unable to stop himself.

The only sound in the room was Emil's crying. Arthur'a hate for them was matched, they where showing their true colors. They detested Arthur.

Still, a shiver ran through Arthur. Even though he was the one with the gun now. They were the ones handcuffed. He was the one surrounded by allies. He was scared. These were some enemy he wasn't sure he would win against.

Ha! How could they get out of this? There was no way their lawyer would get them out of jail time and breaking out of custody would be impossible. Arthur had all the winning cards and he knew when he needed to play them.

Arthur walked back to the door and let Alfred back in, "Please take them back to their cells."

The North rose and started to file out of the room. Lukas was the last in line and stopped without looking at Arthur.

"I want to talk to you alone." Lukas said, his voice passionless.

Arthur nodded to Alfred to take the rest of them and let Lukas back into the interview room.

They sat down and Arthur looked at Lukas expectantly. Emil's soft crying was the only sound for a moment then Lukas sighed and looked up at Arthur.

"At this point no one is winning." Lukas said, "I would like to propose a deal."

Arthur's eyes narrowed. He could almost hear Lukas's hate for him, "What sort of deal?"

"The sort of deal where Peter goes home and I answer all of your questions to the best of my ability."

"I'm listening."

Lukas took a deep breath, "If I do this, I have one request."

Arthur just looked at Lukas.

"I want you to ensure that Emil's name is clean when this is all over."

"I can't do that."

Lukas gave a sharp bark of laughter, "Oh yes you can!"

Arthur glared at Lukas. He already knew what Lukas wanted, "No."

"You are a private detective agent. Who says you have to turn over all of the evidence when you turn us over to the police?" Lukas gave Arthur a tiny smile, "Who says that the evidence against Emil ever existed?"

"No." Arthur said and sneered, "There's this thing called professional pride. Ever heard of it?"

Lukas sat back in his chair and closed his eyes, "Tino was right about you, you care only for yourself."

"You're not going to guilt me into this. Emil is guilty and it's my job to see that he is brought to justice."

"No," Lukas said, "Your job is to get back the items that the agency was hired to get. Justice has nothing to do with your job."

Arthur stared at the table. He could hear Emil and the image of the boy came to him. In his mind's eye he saw Emil back in the cell, skin pale and stone still. "I'm listening."

 **I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to update! I don't plan on abandoning this story, it's just that school has taken my life and put it in a blender. Hopefully updates will come sooner, but it won't be weekly like over the summer.**

 **Thanks again for your support and I am so sorry about the slow update!**


	19. Chapter 19

Emil sat crossed from Peter and stared at his hands. He felt drained. He had felt drained so often the past few days he wasn't sure when he had had time to recharge. Peter hadn't spoken since Emil had gotten here. It was the longest stretch of silence that Emil had ever enjoyed in the presence of Peter. Emil wasn't sure how much time had passed. One hour? Two? The whole morning? What time was it? Emil didn't care.

Neither of them felt like there was anything that needed to be said. Peter was smarter than what Emil gave him credit for.

Emil glanced up, Peter's fingers traced the grain in the wood table. Emil noted that his finger never varied from a particular knot and group of streaks. Emil sighed and got up. He walked to one end of Berwald's kitchen and studied the counter, then he turned and walked to the kitchen door and stopped again. The doorway looked into the unlit hall. Emil turned and walked back to the counter. Then back to the door.

"Please don't pace." Peter said, "You're making me nervous."

Emil sat down again.

Emil's phone rang. He and Peter looked at it in surprise.

"Hello?"

"Hey Emil!"

Emil nearly dropped the phone. Mathias sounded as if he were standing in the kitchen. Mathias sounded chipper, happy, and over all normal.

"Mathias?" Emil choked, Peter's head shot up and his eyes locked on the phone, "Tino? Where are you what happened?"

Mathias laughed, "A better question is, where are you?"

"Mathias! What happened to everyone?" Emil said, "Where is Lu-"

"No." Mathias's voice grew hard, "No, listen to me. You have to trust us, you have to do what I tell you or everything that has happened in the last few days will all be a waste."

Emil couldn't find his voice. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Emil? Do you understand? You have to work with us on this one."

"Tell me one thing." Emil said slowly.

Mathias sighed, "One thing."

"Are you all going to jail?"

"Yes."

It took all of Emil's willpower to not hang up. It took all of Emil's willpower to not yell at Mathias, to not complain and rant and rave. No, instead Emil just nodded.

"You jerks."

Mathias laughed, "Yeah, we are the biggest jerks on the planet!"

"I glad you recognize that." Emil said emotionlessly.

"I know you're mad, but that doesn't really matter right now." Mathias said, "We each only have one phone call available to us and I'm using mine right now. Just finished talking to Lukas and he wanted me to make sure that you really were talking on the radios earlier."

Emil nodded, then remembered Mathias couldn't see him, "Yeah, I was trying to contact you."

"Ah, so Mr. Kirkland isn't as evil as Tino thinks he is."

"What? What happened?" Emil swallowed, "Did you hear me?"

"It doesn't matter." Mathias said quickly, "Are you with Peter?"

Emil opened his eyes and looked at Peter, "Yes."

"Good. After Tino makes his call, there will be only two phone calls left available to us." Mathias sounded strangely thoughtful, "The next time one of us calls you, you need to take Peter home, then go to my house. Who ever calls, either Lukas or Berwald, will probably not be able to speak as freely as I can now, but remember that call is really an OK to take Peter home."

"Please, Mathias, what is going on?" Emil asked, forcing his voice to remain steady.

Mathias just sighed again, "You'll understand everything soon. Just know that we are all good with this."

"You're all leaving me."

"No, we're freeing you."

"Right."

"When you get to my house you are going to meet the newest member of the North. His name is Estonia."

Emil sighed, "Right, is this someone who I've met before?"

"Maybe, he is a friend of Tino's."

"Okay, whatever."

"One other thing."

"What?"

"The North is officially disbanded."

Emil closed his eyes again, "Whatever." He hung up.

Did they ever think about how their actions effected him? Did they ever think that maybe he didn't want to be free? He wanted everything to go back to normal.

"What did he say?"

Emil looked up at Peter in mild surprise. Right, Peter was here. Emil shrugged, "The next time one of them calls, it will be either Lukas or Berwald, and I need to take you home."

Peter's face was eerily blank. He just looked at Emil for a moment then nodded slowly, "If it's Berwald, I want to talk to him."

Emil nodded, "Next time the phone rings, we'll put the phone on speaker."

Peter nodded. Emil put the phone on the middle of the kitchen table and the two fell into silence.

Arthur stood outside the agency and waited. The chief of police was on his way to pick up the North and take them out of Arthur's hands. He felt disgusted with himself. He had spent the last two hours sorting though evidence. Something that was not done. He had taken out all things that discriminated Emil. He had edited evidence. That was not done. That was wrong. During the time Emil was arrested, Arthur removed all things that could make that arrest valid. It made him look bad. It made him look like he randomly went around arresting little kids. It made him look like he randomly accepted delinquent's accusations of their classmates. It made it look like Vlad was insane and Arthur felt terrible.

However, Lukas had held up his end of the deal. Lukas had spilled everything. He had told locations of drop offs, their clients, their clients's roles in the underworld, how much the North was paid for each job, how they broke into each place, a ridiculous amount of random information about the underworld and how the underworld operated, plus where Lukas suspected all of the items where now. Arthur had done some searching, and of the information he checked, it was all correct or fit beautifully into the puzzle.

If Arthur thought he was spoiling his own good name, he knew that what Lukas had given him destroyed the North's entire career. As far as Arthur could tell, Lukas had made an enemy of just about all of the underworld. At this point, it was looking like Lukas would be safer in prison than if Arthur let him go. Then again, chances where that the folks in prison wouldn't be too happy about the information leak either.

Arthur shook his head. He was getting soft. Was he really feeling sympathy toward Lukas? Nah, Lukas had taken Peter. Lukas had been the mind behind the North. Lukas had been his bad guy. Now Lukas was going to jail. Justice was served.

Emil would never feel the repercussions of being part of the North. Emil would get off scot free. Arthur had edited the evidence.

What on earth was he doing? Editing evidence? To save some kid? One did not edit evidence.

The police car drove up.

Arthur greeted the chief warmly and escorted him to the cells that held the North. Apparently Mathias and Tino had used their phone calls.

As the police started moving the North to the cars, Lukas looked at Arthur.

"You understand that once I tell you everything, I am trusting you to uphold your end of this deal." Lukas's eyes had bore into Arthur.

"Yes, I assure you that if you pull through, I will too." Arthur had said, "Emil will be the best of kids and you will be villanized."

"This still comes back to the problem that your morals may take the high ground and you may leave the evidence the way it is."

Arthur had sat back in the chair, "You could also say that Peter may never come home." Arthur shrugged, "This is a gamble for both of us."

Lukas had closed his eyes and nodded slowly, "I hope this trust is not mislaid."

"Of the two of us, I'm not the one who broke into houses for a living."

"That's the problem."

Arthur watched the police take Lukas and Mathias away. They were put into the same car. Next came Berwald and Tino. Suddenly Berwlad stopped.

"I want to make a call."

Arthur looked at the huge man in surprise. He wasn't sure he could imagine such a long sentence, much less an entire phone conversation.

Arthur nodded and brought Berwald to the phone. Berwald dialed, carefully blocked Arthur's view of the number then raised the phone to his ear.

"Hello. It's me." Berwald said the paused. "No."

Arthur watched Berwald carefully, but nothing changed.

"I wanted to say good bye." Berwald said, his tone still flat and his face blank, "Be good."

As Berwald took the phone from his ear and started to hang up, Arthur could hear the person on the other end of the phone talking in a quick, high pitched, distressed tone.

Click. It was gone.

Berwald bobbed his head and turned to the chief of police, "Thank you."

The chief nodded and led Berwald away. Arthur trailed after them. He stood in front of the agency and watched the police cars whisk the North and evidence away.

Arthur leaned back against the agency building. The police cars turned and vanished. His hand went to his phone. He stopped. It would be unreasonable to expect Peter to be magically home now that the North were gone. Give it an hour.

Arthur walked back inside and plopped himself down at his desk with a sigh. The culprits put away, lots of information that would benefit not only his team but probably Francis's and Ivan's as well. All that was left to do was to actually locate the items. The bank could fix the loop in their security system, Arthur would get his little brother back, Emil would go back to living a normal life, the other North would go to jail. This were looking up. Arthur was winning.

So, why did he feel so terrible?

Arthur's phone rang.

"Arthur?"

Arthur's breath caught. "Peter?"

"Arthur? Allistor told me to call you, so here I am; calling you." Peter's voice was flat, but definitely Peter.

"Peter? Are you okay? Did they treat you well? Is everything okay? Are you at home now?" Arthur's words spilled out of him, he closed his eyes and forced himself to stop talking, he just wanted to hear Peter talk. He just wanted to hear the sound of that voice. Just wanted to know things were okay again.

"Yeah." Peter sounded uncaring, "It was fine, no problems. I'm at home, now."

Arthur wanted to smile, to be happy, but a small red light seemed to be flashing in the back of his mind. Something was wrong. Peter was off. Peter wasn't acting like Peter. What happened?

"Are you sure that you're okay?" Arthur asked slowly, "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah." Peter said, lifelessly, "Everything is fine. I'm home."

Arthur winced, he wasn't sure what it was, but somehow the way that Peter said 'home' seemed insulting. There was no noticeable difference in his tone or vocal expression, but that one word sounded heavy. It almost sounded like the word tasted bad in Peter's mouth.

"Right." Arthur said, "Good, I'm glad. I'll see you after work then, okay?"

"Okay." Peter said and he hung up.

Arthur looked at the phone for a moment. Lukas had certainly given Peter back, but somehow Arthur felt like he hadn't given all of Peter back. Did they hurt him? Beat him? Worst? What sort of twisted people were they? What had they done to Peter?

Nothing apparently. Extensive questioning over dinner revealed that they had mostly played board games with Peter. Somehow, Arthur didn't believe Peter.

Then there was the dog. Peter had come home with a small white dog who he called Hana. Apparently it was Tino's dog. Peter demanded that they keep it. It was the first thing that he had actually fought for. It was the first thing he seemed to have ever felt strongly about to disobey Arthur and Allistor. Allistor gave in first. So, now they had a dog. No, Peter had a dog. The thing followed him around and practically worshiped him.

Great. Arthur wasn't against dogs, but the idea of housing the dog that once belonged to the crazy sniper did not appeal to him.

So, Arthur's life went on. Given the gold mine that Lukas's information had been, tracking down the items and catching their buyers was relatively easy.

But he still came home everyday to a little brother who didn't seem the same.

Emil came home every day to Estonia.

Emil met Estonia the day Peter had gone home and had found that he was named Edward. Edward brought Emil home, fed him dinner, and made up a room for him. Apparently, Edward was to be Emil's guardian in place of Lukas.

And Emil had just met him.

Great. Not really. That was sarcasm. This was really not great.

Emil had nothing against Edward, he was really nice, but rather high strung. Really, it was hard to have something against a guy you just met. As people went, Edward seemed perfectly fine to Emil. The house was nice enough and Edward had no rules that Emil couldn't handle. Of course, he was supposed to go back to school. That didn't sound too great. Over all, they had the unspoken understanding that they were both going to work together to make this work out. This had come as a surprise to both of them, but Emil needed a guardian and Edward wanted to be in the North, so everyone was happy.

Sort of.

There was the whole thing with Lukas and the others going to prison. Apparently, they were in the hands of the city police now, their trials to be held within the next week. Edward said that they could go to all four trials if Emil wanted to. Of course Emil wanted to.

Emil noticed that Arthur was absent from all four trials, but Peter was present for Tino's and Berwald's. The trials were short and to the point. These were dangerous criminals who had been terrorizing the city and mocking the police for nearly a year now. Now it was up to the jury to dish out justice as they saw fit.

Apparently, little brothers left alone in the world didn't factor into the jury's opinion. The jurors didn't think of high school kid's worlds being ripped apart and sent to cement buildings to stare at a wall all day. They didn't think of all of the dinners, Friday game nights, homework problems, and car rides home from school. They didn't think of where this left Emil. What was the justice in that?

One the final day of Lukas's trail, Ludwig broke away from his table and walked over to Emil. The verdict left him cold and mad. Lukas wouldn't look at him.

Ludwig offered him a seal envelope then turned and left. Emil didn't open the envelope until he and Edward had gotten home for the night. Emil locked his door and flopped down on the bed. He just looked at the envelope for a long time before finally deciding to open it.

 _My Dearest Emil,_

 _I know what you want now is an apology and I also know that this letter not do for you what I intend it to. Please know that we have had no intention of hurting you, though it is clear that we have. The truth is that you are better off without us than with us. However, this is also not what you want to hear. So I will be straight to the point. Even after reading this, you will still be mad at us. You will still be sad, and feel alone. There is nothing I can say that will change that. This letter is an explanation, because we owe you that much._

 _I will start with after you were arrested. You already know much of this since you sat through our trials, but I wanted to tell you myself._

 _We knew Vlad had been waiting at the detective agency an hour before the police did. Berwald kept an eye on him all day through the cameras and when Arthur left to go arrest you, I had proposed a vote on what to do. The first option was to try to get to you first and run, the second option was to let you get arrested. In the end, it was three to one, I had wanted to run. When you called Berwald, he told you to go with Arthur because we would be able to watch through our cameras. We thought it best to leave you in the dark about this since there was already so much pressure on you. It was agreed that you would be able to handle yourself in an interview and since you are a minor, it would be all the worst for Arthur if anything were to happen to you._

 _Mathias and I contacted East and West and hired West as a lawyer with the agreement that if we got off clean, we would break into the city hall for them. This still left the problem of what to do next. It made most sense to go talk to Arthur, like any family would._

 _Mathias and I tried to get Arthur to let you go, but by then it was clear Arthur thought you were guilty. I thought there might be a chance that you would be able to change his mind, but with all the pressure you were under it was unlikely. Please remember that I am not criticizing you, actually I'm extremely impressed that you didn't crack. However, Arthur is a detective and a very good one at that, you never stood a chance and it's very possible he would have seen through any of us were we in your place._

 _Since I didn't think that Arthur was going to change his mind, we decided to confirm his suspicions. Kidnapping Peter was a big destination. It did two things for us: First it was a kick in the gut for Arthur, it was intended to make him more determined than ever to catch us, but to shake him enough that he wasn't on his best game, Second it gave us play power. With us holding Peter and us being criminals, Arthur would have no guarantee that we wouldn't hurt Peter, while we knew that Arthur wouldn't dare hurt a minor in custody. He would have no choice but to go with whatever we demanded._

 _Peter fit in with us surprisingly well. It was a quiet night and he seemed to sense that we were all pretty on edge and unhappy, because he seemed even more energetic and bright than your descriptions. We agreed that since Berwald's house had the best security system, it would be best to keep Peter there._

 _Peter was a huge negotiation piece, but it wouldn't be enough to get what we wanted. Our goal was to totally clear your name. We talked about this a lot, we came up with a lot of plans and scrapped all of them. It kept coming back to the same problem, Peter in our hands could not get us all we wanted. It was decided that Peter plus us would seal the deal. That meant we would have to get arrested, but it had to be by Arthur's team, or Peter as leverage wouldn't work as well._

 _For this reason, I demanded that Arthur be kept alive. Another team would not have the personal investment and may not put as much weight in Peter's kidnapping. Plus, we had watched Arthur's team work for so long that all of us were familiar with how they did things. Mathias and Tino wanted Arthur dead and Berwald agreed with me. A two to two vote got us no where. So, it was decided that we would play some cards, the winner would decided Arthur's fate. We planned out everything for after our arrest, including the phone calls to signal to you Peter's release. I knew you would figure out how to check everyone's house, but I messed up the bike tires and canceled your bus pass to try to slow you down and give us the time to try to work with Arthur._

 _When we contacted Arthur, he was alone and we already knew what he would do._

 _He came to the safe house backed by the city police, but he came inside alone. Tino had developed a dislike for Arthur while talking with Peter and was more trigger happy than I've ever seen him. However, Berwald won and Tino stood down. Still, Tino got Arthur to order your release._

 _None of us cooperated with Arthur's questioning, we couldn't until we were sure that we had enough leverage to get all of our demands met. We didn't know what was going on when we were all assembled in one room with the radio we had given Vladimir. Arthur had heard you when you were trying to contact us and had seen it as an opportunity to get us to talk._

 _Listening to you made up my mind. This was the leverage we needed. Arthur was still human and mental torture was clearly hurting him as much as it hurt us. I made a deal with Arthur, he would not turn over the evidence that would convict you to the police, in return we would give back Peter and I told him all of the information he wanted about the North._

 _From there, we were taken to the police and you've gone to Estonia._

 _I want to make it perfectly clear that you being arrested was a bit of a reality check for all of us. For the first time, I understood what it was that we were doing to you. We were robbing you of your childhood and your future. Neither of those things can be returned once they have been lost. You've been trying to grow up so fast, that you are missing the moment you actually live in. When I saw Arthur walk in to the station with you in cuffs, I promised myself that I would do everything I could to return your future to you, even if I couldn't return your past._

 _You are a very clever person, I'm sure you already knew that we did all of this solely for you, but I wanted to tell you myself. I know you are properly mad at us right now. You think we are selfish blockheads who didn't look at the situation from your perspective. You aren't wrong. However, I am your guardian and we are all the adults in your life. I don't take advantage of either of those positions often, but now was a time when I believe that it was my responsibility to put you in the best position. I hate to say that we know what is good for you, but in this case it's true. I hate to make this sort of decision, we all wanted to consult you, but there wasn't time. Even as I write this, the only thing I regret is making you cry._

 _I hate trying to be the parent to you, I've always just wanted to be your brother. Circumstances are they are, that wasn't possible. For that, I am sorry._

 _Arthur probably thinks that since his justice is served, he won this round. In my eyes we won. Our goal was to get you out of the underworld and clear your name of our mistakes and we did that._

 _Please understand that we want the very best for you. You are intelligent, kind, and a good person and you have such a bright future. I want you to take full advantage of that._

 _I hate myself sometimes for stealing your childhood and dragging you into the North. I wish I could go back and keep it all a secret from you. However, we needed you and we still do. If you have ever thought yourself inadequate, the failure of the North; you never were or will be._

 _Please Emil, this is your chance to start fresh. This is your chance to figure out who you want to be and where you want to go. This is your freedom. Your independence._

 _Always remember that you can come visit me in prison, although I would rather you didn't. I don't want you to be apart of this world anymore. Also remember, I love you._

 _Your Big Brother,_

 _Lukas_

Emil folded the letter and tapped it to the wall above his desk.

Life just wasn't fair sometimes. Emil curse all of times someone had told him to trust them. Emil didn't plan on ever trusting adults ever again. This was where trusting Adults got you; alone on the wrong side of locked doors.

Emil flopped back on his bed and promised himself he was never going to cry again.

 **Happy Hetalia Day! Today the last two chapters of this story are going up! Thank you so much for all of your continued support! If you are unhappy with the ending, I'm sorry but this was always my intention.**


	20. Chapter 20

Leon poked Emil in the back. Emil straightened up and blinked blearily. The teacher glared at him, but continued teaching without mentioning it. A week of late nights was not being kind to him.

School was interfering with his sleep schedule again.

What a pain. At least he didn't get detention again.

Emil shifted in his seat and caste Leon a grateful smile before turning back to the front of the room. He had an essay to write tonight, but he had no intention of doing it. Nah, he had better things to do tonight.

After school, he and Leon wandered around the mall aimlessly until Leon's ride came and picked him up. Emil walked back to the school and sat on the front steps to write his essay. He had time, plus if he didn't turn something in, he might loose his spot as at the top of his class. Missing all that time for the North trials had given his competitors a chance to catch up to him grade wise. Oh well.

The day grew colder as the sun started to sink behind the buildings on the horizon.

Emil walked off of the school grounds as quickly as he could without actually running. It was getting too late. If they didn't get it tonight, they would have to wait another month.

He reached the parking spot where Lukas had once sat waiting for him. It seemed a lifetime ago, even if it had only been a few months.

Edward knew not to expect Emil home for another few hours, but Emil was about ready to head home anyway when he finally heard the pounding of running feet.

"You're late." Emil said as Peter came up next to him gasping.

"No I'm not!" Peter whined, "You said half past ten and it is half past ten!"

Emil threw the black ski mask at Peter and zipped up his jacket, "No, I said a quarter past ten!"

Peter sighed and put the ski mask on, "Whatever! Where are we going tonight?"

Emil pulled on his gloves and smiled, "The city council building, there is a safe there with the blue prints for the new bank. We need those if we ever want to do anything impressive."

Peter laughed, "Impressive? We will pull off something so great that not even the North will know what to say!"

"Stop talking and let's get going!" Emil said and started off again, "We don't have time for this!"

"All you do is worry!" Peter chuckled, "Worry! Worry! Worry! Goodness Emil! Relax a bit!"

"The mask is on!" Emil snapped, pointing at his ski mask, "Don't call me Emil!"

Peter stuck out his tongue, "Oh! Sorry!" He said mockingly, "Iceland! What was I thinking? Who is this Emil you speak of?"

Emil sighed, "Thank you Sealand, put your gloves on."

Peter threw his gloves at Emil then sprinted ahead, laughing. Emil sighed again and picked up Peter's gloves. He started off at a run after the other boy and couldn't help but smile to himself. There were worst partners. Then again, there were better.

Lukas wanted Emil to stay out of the crime world? Lukas had given Emil his freedom? Well, this was what Emil had chose to do with that  
freedom, this was what he enjoyed doing, wanted to do, and planned on continue doing. There was nothing Lukas could do about it.

The first thing Arthur did when he got up was make tea. The second was to watch with mild interest as Allistor made breakfast. Finally, Peter would come down stairs and the three would eat together. That was what happened every morning.

"Hey, do you want a ride to school today?" Arthur asked Peter as he always did.

"No, but thanks!" Peter said cheerfully, "I like taking the bus."

"Okay, if you say so." Arthur sighed inwardly, Peter was finally back to acting normal. However, no matter how hard Arthur tried to be a better big brother, it seemed like Peter was the one pushing him away now. Had Allistor noticed anything odd about Peter? Arthur put it on his mental list to ask.

"Hey Arthur? There is somewhere I'd like a ride to, if you wanted." Peter asked, his voice suddenly tentative.

Arthur looked up in surprise, "Yes?" Maybe Peter did want to-

"Can I go visit Tino and Berwald?" Peter stared at his breakfast.

Arthur blinked and tried to banish the sinking feeling in his gut,"Tino and Berwald the people who kidnapped you?"

"Yes."

"In prison?"

"Yes."

Arthur rubbed his face. Life wasn't fair, "When?"

"Tomorrow."

"Fine."

 **Happy Hetalia Day! This is the last chapter of this story and I hope that you have enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you so much for all of the continued support! I will now try to finish my Cardverse fic and start some oneshots.**

 **Question: Do you want a sequel? Warning: If I do write a sequel to Crimes, it will NOT be from Emil and Arthur's perspective. Right now I'm thinking on trying Lukas and Peter, but I don't know yet.**


	21. Dear Readers

**Dear Readers,**

 **Thank you. I assume if you are now reading this, you have read my story Northern Crimes and I appreciated you getting this far. Regardless of if you followed every update or found it after it was completed, you getting this far means a lot to me. I hope that you all had as much fun reading this story as I did writing it!**

 **This letter is to announce that Northern Crimes will have a sequel. I asked at the end of the last chapter and the responses where overwhelmingly positive. So, the next story is Micro Law. As I said in the last chapter, this is not from the point of view of Arthur and Emil. I was thinking about going with Lukas and Peter, but I changed my mind and decided to have three points of view this time.**

 **After I post this letter, I will be posting the first chapter of Micro Law, the second to come in a few days. FAIR WARNING: I have no clue how often I am going to be updating it after this! My first two chapters are already written and I'm working on the third. However, life has gotten busy and I've been neglecting all of my stories lately.**

 **So, Happy Nondenominational Holiday. This is my gift to you guys. I hope you like it!**

 **Sincerely,**

 **TheClockworkStarling**


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